Blayney Shire Council is planning to become one of those smaller energy producers, and in doing so make Blayney council self-sufficient for most of its energy needs.

"What's going on in the energy space is very complicated," said Cr Scott Ferguson.

"The technology with solar and batteries is there and we also have that opportunity to connect into the grid here in Blayney."

The genesis of the Renewable Energy Action Plan came about when council completed an audit on all its energy use and costs during 2016-17 and identified where savings could be made.

One of those is the sewerage treatment works which is now partially run by a solar array.

Other plans to reduce council's electricity bills include the new array on the works depot, community centre and a large expansion of the panels on top of CentrePoint.

Those panels themselves are saving ratepayers $26,000 a year in electricity costs.

With those savings becoming clear, council is undergoing an initiative, supported by the Department of Primary Industries and Energy in which Blayney, Cabonne and Orange alliance councils work together to develop renewable energy business-case projects.

In Blayney the supply of batteries to the sewerage treatment plant and building management system at CentrePoint to better utilise the solar capacity and control the heat pumps to operate during the day is one of the projects identified by the DPIE as are smart meters in Cabonne and Oberon shires.

The biggest project by far is the development of a medium scale solar farm with a five megawatts capacity.

A Blayney Solar Project will produce approximately 10GWh of energy per annum. Blayney Shire Council consumption is approximately 2GWh per annum leaving 8GWh spare.

Blayney council would save over $148,000 per annum through reductions to electricity costs.

"That will produce more than enough energy for council to use and we could share the remainder with another council such as Orange or Cabonne through a power purchasing agreement," Cr Ferguson said.

The opportunity exists for council to become a retailer and sell the electricity to industry and residents, however Cr Ferguson said that at the moment, such a plan is incredibly problematic.

"The retail component is pretty ugly at the moment," he said.

"There's a lot of risk in that, which is managed now by your retailer. We're more likely to go down the route of supplying to a another council that wants to buy green energy but can't supply their own."

"It's a win-win then because another council would have to pay for their energy, therefore paying off the array faster, and they are also using cheaper renewable energy that they don't have to establish."

The proposed site in Blayney is in the industrial area north of town where a planned private solar plant right next to the sub-station is no longer going ahead.

As yet council is crunching the numbers as to whether to go it alone, or split the cost and distribution with other councils.

"It's looking positive but it really depends on what the business case looks like," Cr Ferguson said. "We may just build a smaller one just for us, but it all depends on what the numbers say."

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