Australian grid company adds community batteries as it preps for rooftop solar influx

Australian energy infrastructure company Jemena has announced two 400 kWh community battery energy storage systems (BESS) have been plugged into its grid in the northwest of Melbourne, to help power around 375 households in the suburbs of Bellfield and Coburg.

Jemena, which owns power lines and gas pipelines across eastern and northern Australia, said the energy storage systems are the first two community batteries installed across its electricity network and are part of a broader strategy to build an energy system for the future as more Australians embrace the renewable energy transition.

“Over the next 10 years the number of our electricity customers with rooftop solar is set to double from 15% to around 32%,” Jemena Executive General Manager of Networks Shaun Reardon said. “Installing community batteries in areas with a high uptake of rooftop solar is one of the ways we are preparing our network for the future.”

Reardon said the community batteries will help stabilize the electricity grid while enabling more homes to install rooftop solar.

The batteries will store excess power generated during the day from local rooftop solar systems and will make it available to the wider community during peak times at night. All customers connected to the same low-voltage network as the community batteries, not just those with rooftop solar, will automatically access the energy they store, through their existing electricity supply.

“There are around 130 homes and businesses accessing the locally generated renewable energy stored in the Bellfield community battery and around 245 homes and businesses accessing the energy stored in the Coburg battery,” Reardon said.

“By installing these community batteries … we are making renewable energy a reality for many of our customers who don’t have rooftop solar, such as those who are renting.”

Reardon said the community batteries are one of a number of projects underway that will allow more households and businesses to export additional solar energy back into the grid across its electricity network.

“The amount of solar energy that can be exported back into the grid within our electricity network has grown by more than 70% from levels seen in 2020,” he said, adding that the company is continuing to invest in new technologies “to maintain grid stability as solar uptake increases.”

“This is part of our work to build the energy system of the future; one which supports our customers to lower their emissions and delivers energy reliably and safely,” he said.

The Bellfield and Coburg community batteries are two of four Jemena is installing within its electricity network with the utility also developing energy storage systems in the Melbourne suburbs of Alphington and Flemington.

The batteries are supported by the Australian government’s AUD 200 million ($128 million) Community Batteries for Household Solar program.

From pv magazine Australia.