What is MyTown Energy?

Welcome to MyTown Energy!

It’s aim is to help you in your sustainable energy projects by directing you to information that most suits you and your community’s location, priorities, knowledge, skills, and ambitions.

MyTown Energy has been developed by sustainable energy experts working in close partnership with a community and visual design experts. It was a key output from a major Australian Government funded project (called “MyTown Microgrid”) run over three years that sought a way to help make energy work better for people living in regional towns across Australia.

Communities are faced with a growing challenge with rising and more volatile electricity and fuel costs, concerns over climate change, and ensuring a reliable supply of electricity amidst increasingly frequent and extreme weather events. Renewable energy has empowered some and community members are choosing to come together to try and make energy work better for them and their neighbours.

Making the right decisions for supplying clean, affordable, reliable electricity is complex and can be fraught with difficulties. There are many different options available and choosing the right option (or combination of options) for a community can challenge even the most experienced of experts. MyTown Energy can help you and your community navigate this complexity by providing simple and easy to understand guides to help lead you through the different options.

What is Heyfield MyTown Microgrid

MyTown Energy was a key output from a major Australian Government funded project called “MyTown Microgrid”,

MyTown Microgrid was funded with a $1.8 million grant from the Remote and Regional Community Reliability Fund - Microgrids program, with additional funding from the Latrobe Valley Authority.

The project was led by the Heyfield Community Resource Centre, Wattwatchers Digital Energy, and the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures. Other partners included Ausnet Services, Community Power Agency, Federation University Australia, Latrobe Valley Authority, Public Interest Advocacy Centre, and RMIT University.

Over the three-year duration (2020-2023), the project undertook a detailed data-led microgrid and energy solutions feasibility study for the town of Heyfield in the state of Victoria, Australia. The project was unique in the degree of deep community engagement and capacity building that took place, as well as the innovative data-led approach.

MyTown Microgrid also sought to use the process to develop the knowledge and tools to make it faster, easier, and more cost effective for other communities to understand which energy solutions made most sense for them. This knowledge has been meticulously integrated into MyTown Energy.

More information on the project can be found on Heyfield’s community website and on the website of the lead Research partner, the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures.