Would you like access to a home battery, but simply can’t afford it? Get ready to learn some acronyms.
Installing a home battery brings lots of benefits, but is an expensive exercise. And if you’re a renter, you’d be relying on the generosity of your landlord to install one. But some community (aka neighbourhood) battery programs can provide a more accessible solution.
On the weekend, NSW Distributed Network Service Provider (DNSP) and Transmission Network Service Provider (TNSP) Ausgrid announced the launch of its Energy Storage as a Service (ESaaS) initiative, which involves enabling eligible customers to access a shared community battery.
The announcement coincided with the unveiling of Ausgrid’s ninth community battery, a 160kW/412kWh system at Bondi (pictured above) that also features an EV charger. It’s the sixth battery Ausgrid has installed under the Federal Government’s Community Batteries for Household Solar Program. An election commitment from Labor, the program will see more than 400 community batteries rolled out across the country.
Ausgrid’s community batteries are being combined with a trial Local Use of System (LUOS) tariff, which it says could result in some customers saving more than $200 a year. It’s not a huge amount, but $200 is better off in your pocket than someone else’s.
“This approach can deliver cost savings for consumers, improve grid reliability, facilitate greater integration of renewable energy and support home electrification,” states Ausgrid.
The trial tariff has been established in an agreement with participating retailers – Origin and EnergyAustralia at this stage.
Eligibility for the trial includes being in a catchment area of one of the batteries, not already having a home battery, and having a smart meter. For those with solar panels, they’ll still receive a feed-in tariff. But customers don’t need to have a solar power system to participate, can be renters or owner-occupiers, and live in a house or apartment.
How Does Ausgrid ESaaS Provide Savings?
There wasn’t a great deal of nitty-gritty information among the promotion. However, Ausgrid CEO Marc England stated:
“Eligible customers in the vicinity of Ausgrid’s community batteries use the network less and therefore pay less in network charges, potentially saving them hundreds of dollars per year.”
In a revised proposal relating to ESaaS published last year, Ausgrid said:
“The tariff charging components will be set to reflect the avoided use of the upstream sections of the network, with a lower allocation of residual costs, transmission charges, and distribution LRMC [long run marginal cost].”
As for the structure and pricing of ESaaS, I wasn’t able to find details on Origin or EnergyAustralia’s website in order to compare electricity plans as you have to register interest from an eligible location.
Other ESaaS Programs In Australia
Ausgrid isn’t the first to offer an ESaaS program. Over in Western Australia, Western Power been offering one called PowerBank that is available to eligible solar power system owners in the vicinity of a PowerBank community battery.
Participants are put of Time of Use (ToU) tariffs and rent 6 kwh or 8 kwh of community battery capacity at a cost of $1.20-$1.40 a day currently. The community battery is mainly charged with surplus solar energy from participants during the day. That stored energy is (virtually) accessed during peak in the late afternoons and evenings when ToU electricity prices are much higher than during shoulder and off-peak periods.
Western Power says its PowerBank solution works out to be approximately 30% cheaper than buying and installing your own battery; plus there’s the benefit of not having to assume responsibility for an expensive bit of kit. However, participants miss out on some advantages of owning their own system, such as having backup capabilities in the event of a local blackout.
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160kW/412kWh? That’s just over 2.5 hours isn’t it?
And at say 4kW peak demand, 160kW = 40 houses?
So follow the money. Who has the power of arbitrage?
This program gives even more power to energy retailers with Federal Gov funds. Ugly boxes on community poles..it is such joke and the funds should be used for a battery rebate. More profits for the big boys.Why is this just a fluff piece and not some critical analysis?
How feasible is it to replace gas HWS with an elec hws, using surplus solar power that otherwise becomes feed-in tariff. If it’s cloudy, is the economics ruined by hi-load tariff after 2pm? I’m in Newcastle, and able to fit extra pv collectors if the present 18 × 315 watt collectors aren’t enough. These were fitted under F Peacock’s service some 5 yrs ago and i’ve had no issues with the system.
Hi Alan,
It’s certainly feasible.
In fact there’s lots of people who will give impassioned responses on exactly how.
There’s lots of articles here :
https://www.solarquotes.com.au/search/?addsearch=heat%20pump
I hate to recommend the Zuccerburg empire but
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MyEfficientElectricHome
My Efficient Electric Home has a great community of 110 000 like minded Australians who are ready and willing to offer ideas and valuable expertise on electrification.
Getting off gas is also a no brainer. It’s cheaper, easier to clean and better for your health.
https://www.rewiringaustralia.org/
https://electrify2515.org/
I think this concept is dead on arrival. It misses the fundamental of a trade, between 2 parties. What is the customer providing and what are Ausgrid providing? The customer is not providing capital for the purpose of shareholding, distributions or energy savings, for example. They are paying a $200 fee per annum, to save, $200 per annum? A lot of policy, regulatory and legal work for something that makes no sense.
So well said Jonathan.. politicians and bureaucrats and big energy retailers around a table designing something that no self-respecting consumer actually gets a lot of benefits from -and we all pay for it. A joke.
Community batteries are an obvious solution but?
Who owns and operates these batteries?
Where are the batteries made?
What type of batteries are they?
Are they sodium ion batteries, made in Australia or are they Lithium-Ion batteries imported from overseas?
If there were a national energy plan run by an honest government we would have.
A manufacturing industry set up to manufacture
Sodium Ion Storage Batteries
High quality solar panels
Australian made Inverters.
All produced to high quality standards, produced by Australian owned companies.
For this to become reality our federal government would need to,
Remove all input taxes on the manufacturing entities,
Allow Australian access to their multinational controlled superannuation funds so as they could invest in the transition,
Work in collaboration with state and local governments.
Planning with integrity will allow us the community to have ownership of our community batteries, the factories that manufacture the components, and the entities that maintain and operate them. This will ensure we have a high-quality reliable energy supply system that will become the envy of the world.
Tell ‘em their dreamin’
Or Zinc Bromide flow batteries made by the Australian Company, REDFLOW.
Disclosure; We own shares in Redflow.
As an electrician I see many advantages in local production, storage and consumption.
While I am happy to have solar panels on the roof, I am a little more hesitant about having volatile batteries at my house.
To solve the problem, I made a UPS to supply critical portions of the house.
I used lead acid batteries, but these proved to have a short life.
After two sets in 6 years, I sacrificed safety and replaced them with lithium-ion phosphate. I am not totally at ease using that battery, but it is working well. I have installed a smoke detector on the ceiling above it.
I very much like the idea of having the batteries purchased and maintained by the grid operator, where they can be away from domestic dwellings and monitored by qualified people.
Succinct , common sense response completely devoid of vitriolic ideological stance’s especially utopian socialist ideals that cannot be delivered without an unachievable (at least this side of 100 years) change in human nature /the human condition and removal of our entire economic infrastructure and organization of elite groups within institutions and government- just ask Machiavelli 😊 I’ll now return to a much more practical discussion of battery storage in my next comment 😜🤪