Buderim Off-Grid Sigenergy System

Nestled on top of the Buderim hills on the Sunshine Coast is a family home that was an unfortunate victim of one of Queensland’s intense storms. During one of these storms, a lightning strike hit the cable connecting our customer’s home to the grid. The cable was severely damaged, and our customer lost power to their home completely. 

Because of this, our customer was facing a significant out-of-pocket expense and a lot of hoops he would need to jump through. His property is battle-axed, and he has a long, shared driveway, meaning the distance between his home and the street connection point is quite lengthy. With the addition of the shared driveway space, he was facing a steep price to have the cable repaired and reconnected. In the meantime, he would also need to run his home entirely from a large diesel generator - or, he could look at converting his existing solar system to a standalone energy system.

After weighing the pros and cons, he opted for the off-grid energy system and engaged us to design a system for his home. Working directly with the customer, our team were able to quickly design and install an off-grid Sigenergy battery system that incorporated his pre-existing solar array.

After a site inspection, our engineering team determined that he was already generating enough energy to power the home with his existing solar array. With this in mind, our system design then focused on upgrading his switchboard, removing his existing inverters (as his weren't battery compatible) and installing a new SigenStor inverter and battery stack at the property. 

This stack consists of 32kWh of SigenStor battery modules and a 30kW three-phase inverter. We also opted to upgrade his switchboard, taking the property from two-phase to three-phase. This upgrade would allow us to maximise the inverter capacity at the property, which would give him a more efficient battery system to power his home.  

After a few months of running his system efficiently, this customer reached out to us again. Having seen the recently released Federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program, our customer wanted to double his battery capacity by adding a second 32kWh SigenStor stack.

Our team were easily able to return to the property to add the additional battery stack. The original system featured a single 30kW inverter module, which is the maximum allowed at a residential property under CEC regulations. With the addition of the second stack, we decided to split the inverter capacity across two 15kW inverter modules. This would offer the customer the ability to connect the system to the grid in the future.

Since the installation, this system has been running flawlessly and keeping the customer’s house powered from the significant Sigenergy battery stack. Now, almost a year out from the installation, the customer was able to have the cable to his house repaired, and has decided to have the property reconnected to the grid. Since he has a significant system at the property, this customer is now enjoying the financial benefits of having his system connected to a virtual power plant (VPP), where he can get paid to send his excess energy to the grid.