Hepburn Energy is Australia’s first community-owned wind farm, featuring two turbines near Daylesford, Victoria. 2,000 community members co-own the project through the co-operative model.
Hepburn Energy has been working on the concept of co-locating a battery energy storage system (BESS) at their wind farm to mitigate the risks associated with negative energy market pricing since 2021. In 2023, they secured funding from the federal government’s Community Batteries for Household Solar Program. Having ordered the system in December last year, the 2 MW/5 MWh BESS has been installed on site and is scheduled to be energised in the coming months.
The project – an important evolution of Hepburn Wind, Australia’s first community-owned wind farm – combines renewable generation with battery storage to enhance local resilience and participation in the National Electricity Market (NEM). Acacia Energy will support the project by providing accurate, transparent, and compliant market settlement services to ensure the optimal financial performance of the battery and wind assets.
“We’re thrilled to partner with the Hepburn Energy team to support this pioneering community energy initiative,” said Richard Martin, Managing Director at Acacia Energy. “As first movers in the community energy space, their mission aligns well with our own, which is to provide access to energy markets for C&I scale batteries. In doing so, we unlock this sector for our customers, our partners, and the broader community.”
This appointment further cements Acacia Energy’s growing presence in the commercial and industrial battery sector and its unique capability to serve both large-scale and community energy partners across Australia.
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