Victorian Distributed Network Service Provider Jemena has taken the wraps off two new community batteries in Melbourne that will help support more solar installations in the suburbs where they’ve been installed.
Through around 6,800 km of poles and wires, Jemena’s electricity network services more than 370,000 customers and businesses across a 950 square kilometre area in north-west greater Melbourne. Many Jemena customers already have rooftop solar panels and many more will install PV systems in the not-too-distant future.
“Over the next ten years the number of our electricity customers with rooftop solar is set to double from 15 percent to around 32 percent,” said Jemena’s Executive General Manager of Networks Shaun Reardon. “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.”
Among the areas heading for high uptake (for Victoria) are Bellfield and Coburg, where Jemena’s first two community batteries have been installed. Each battery has around 400kWh of storage capacity; soaking up locally generated surplus solar electricity during the day and discharging the stored energy in the evening when grid demand is high, taking pressure off the network.
“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,” Mr Reardon said.
The installations were supported by the Federal Government’s $200 million Community Batteries for Household Solar program that will see a total 400 energy storage systems installed across the country. And there are more to come for Jemena under this program; in Alphington and Flemington.
Supporting More Solar Power
The new community batteries are part of broader efforts on Jemena’s part to support more solar power system installations within its service area. According to the company, the amount of solar energy that can be exported back into the grid within its network has grown by more than 70 percent compared to the levels of 2020.
“This was achieved through an optimisation program aimed at ensuring the network is equipped to host additional solar energy with no impact to the power supply customers rely on each day,” said Mr. Reardon. “We will continue to invest in new technologies, such as community batteries, to maintain grid stability as solar uptake increases.”
In the Jemena network, single-phase connections are subject to a 10 kW solar inverter limit, but with a 5 kW export limit. For three-phase connections, there’s a 30 kW inverter limit and a 15 kW export limit. Battery inverters count towards the inverter capacity limits. Jemena is looking to implement flexible solar exports from 2026, which should see export limits increase for participating customers.
Community Batteries As A Canvas
As with quite a few other community batteries installed around Australia, these two installations have served as a canvas for artists. The Bellfield battery shown above has artwork by Felicity Gordon, while the one in Coburg (below) features artwork by Marco Pennacchia.
Jemena says local residents and community groups were involved on the look and position of the batteries.
In my neck of the woods, I’ve noticed infrastructure with authorised artwork doesn’t tend to attract taggers, whose scrawls are repugnant. It’s the unauthorised “blank” canvases that tends to draw these miscreants like flies to a turd.
Potential anti-toy tagger attributes aside, most of the (authorised) community battery art I’ve seen looks great. While the murals themselves won’t reduce emissions by a single gram or lower electricity bills by even a cent; it’s certainly a lot more interesting to look at than plain cabinets, or those covered with infantile scribble.
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