Australian government push for community electrification met with renewed calls for federal residential battery subsidy

With the Australian federal government increasing efforts to support community electrification programs, industry bodies have responded with renewed calls for a national program to accelerate residential battery uptake. The Smart Energy Council said that, as a federal election campaign looms, a battery support scheme could be promised and implemented quickly, delivering a “win for hip pockets.”
Rooftop solar systems in Perth, Western Australia. | Source: Western Power

With a federal election expected within months, Australia’s energy future is shaping up as a central issue. While much policy discussion has focused on large-scale developments, this week the federal government lent its support to community electrification.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced this week that he had directed the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to broaden its support for community electrification initiatives. At present, ARENA is supporting pilot projects in New South Wales, South Australia, and the Northern Territory. The government has instructed the agency to roll such programs right around the country.

“ARENA pilot projects supporting home electrification will help create valuable insights into how households can transition to renewables and smart energy systems to cut energy costs and reduce emissions,” Bowen said in a statement.

The Electrify 2515 pilot in Wollongong is the best known community electrification project, which involves rolling out solar, battery energy storage, smart energy management, energy efficiency measures, and electric household appliances in homes. Alongside an EV, electrification can deliver considerable savings, with Australia’s peak scientific body, the CSIRO, finding that it can reduce energy costs by up to $2250 each year.

Source: CSIRO

1 million batteries

While welcoming the initiative, the Smart Energy Council has renewed its calls for a national distributed battery program, with a federal election in the offing. Describing the county as being “at a crossroads on the journey towards our energy future,” Smart Energy Council CEO John Grimes said solar, batteries and home electrification can deliver immediate savings.

“We can slash energy bills for millions of Australian homes through electrification with solutions available right now or we can follow the federal opposition’s energy route that continues down the path of higher electricity prices, on a vague promise that in 20 years our destination will be even more expensive nuclear power,” Grimes told ESS News. The opposition Coalition parties have proposed an energy plan featuring the construction of seven nuclear power plants at the sites of former or current coal plants, with the first coming online in the mid-2030s.

The Smart Energy Council has called on all political parties to support its proposed National Battery Booster Program. It claims the initiative could see residential battery installations swell to 1 million by 2030 – delivering savings to homeowners, time shifting rooftop solar production to the evening, and strengthening the electricity network as distributed PV installation rates remain robust.

In December, Australia saw 306 MW of sub-100 kW systems installed, bringing the annual tally to 3.17 GW, according to data compiled by Green Energy Markets. While just shy of the 3.21 GW achieved in the market segment in the record setting year of 2021, it represented a slight increase on the previous year.

Source: Green Energy Markets

In analysis published this month, Tristan Edis, the Director of Analysis of the clean-energy certificate trading house said that residential batteries have emerged as the “obvious fix” to the challenge of meeting evening electricity demand. While a growing proportion of the country’s daytime electricity demand is currently being met by rooftop PV, evening demand peaks remain a challenge, Edis said. 

“Rooftop solar has been incredibly successful in both lowering emissions and reducing energy costs during daytime periods. Now the solar industry and government need to move their gaze towards the next challenge – addressing the high costs and high emissions of the evening peak period.”

Edis continued that falling battery cell and pack prices and scaling effects the cost of residential battery systems installed in Australia could rapidly decrease. “The industry could supply complete systems at around 30% to 50% cheaper than the historical norm.”

Australian residential battery rate is currently running at slightly more than 20%, estimates industry analyst Warwick Johnston, from Sunwiz. Preliminary Sunwiz data for 2024 show that approximately 60,000 distributed batteries were installed bringing the cumulative total to more than 300,000.

An Australian federal election must be held on or before May 17.

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