Hydro Tasmania has developed a remote island power system in the Bass Strait, Australia, that achieves a high level of renewable energy penetration through the integration of wind and solar generation with new and innovative storage and enabling technologies. The ongoing development of the power system is focused on reducing or replacing the use of diesel fuel while maintaining power quality and system security in a low inertia system. In recent years Hydro Tasmania has undertaken several renewable energy developments on King Island with the aim to reduce dependence on diesel, reduce operating cost and greenhouse gas emissions, and demonstrate the potential for renewable energy penetration in power systems. This has been achieved through the substitution of diesel based generation with renewables such as wind and solar and the integration of enabling technologies such as storage and a dynamic frequency control resistor. The projects completed to date include:

• Wind farm developments completed in 1997 and expanded to 2.25 MW in 2003;

• Installation of a 200 kW, 800 kWh Vanadium Redox Battery (2003);

• Installation of a two-axis tracking 100 kW solar photovoltaic array (2008), and

• Development of a 1.5 MW dynamic frequency control resistor bank, that operates during excessive wind generation (2010).