Energy infrastructure company Jemena said two 400 kWh community battery energy storage systems have been installed within its electricity network in Melbourne’s northwest to help power about 400 households across 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 stabilise the electricity grid while enabling more homes to install rooftop solar.
Image: Jemena
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 $200 million Community Batteries for Household Solar program.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.