Examples of benefits would include backup power for community buildings and facilities, providing essential services during blackouts, sharing locally produced energy, and powering entire suburbs.

The study is a joint research project by the federal government and combined forces from the South Coast Health and Sustainability Alliance, ANU, Essential Energy, and ZepBen to explore feasibility of microgrids in regional context that face challenges in resilience from events such as bushfires.

Last week the study identified eight regions in the Eurobodalla Shire (Bodalla, Broulee, Central Tilba and Tilba Tilba, Congo, Mystery Bay, Nelligen, South Durras and Tuross Head) as suitable for the study.

"The sites all ranked highly in terms of vulnerability as well as having high rates of solar installations and at least one microgrid option that is relatively tractable," a spokesperson from SHASA, who is heavily involved in the study, said.

"The sites were selected through a consortium-wide process of quantitative and qualitative analysis and consultation with the Eurobodalla Shire Council."

Consultation with the communities will begin later this year - local community groups are invited to participate, and additional invitations will be in people's letterboxes in coming weeks.

"This is such a great idea - I would love to be involved," a Broulee resident said. "We have solar on our property in Broulee - no battery as yet.

"Please put us down if we could be involved - or assist - in any way."

A Central Tilba Business operator believes a decentralised model is imperative to the survival or regional areas.

"As a significant power user, we are interested in being involved in regional based power solutions such as this, not only for the economic resilience of our business, but for the economic resilience of regional communities in general," they said.

"Solutions to power supply interruptions would encourage us to look at further expanding our business."

A resident from Mystery Bay also showed interest in how microgrids can provide backup power in case of emergencies.

"We want to know if we can cut costs or connect to a local resource that is too small or unreliable for traditional grid use," they said.

"We believe that a microgrid allows communities to be more energy independent and can be more environmentally friendly."

SHASA President Kathryn Maxwell said decentralising community energy systems made sense if "we are able to keep energy affordable for our community".

"Producing and consuming electricity locally will also have significant economic benefits in terms of employment and keeping the money local," she said.

"Now that this project has a focus on these areas of the Eurobodalla, we can begin to understand what that energy system might look like from the communities' point of view."