Narrabri Community Battery Project Short-Circuited By Council U-Turn

A mockup of the Narrabri Community Battery

New South Wales’ Narrabri Shire Council has put signing a crucial agreement for the installation of a community battery on the backburner, threatening the project.

Council had been engaging in negotiations with local non-profit Geni.Energy Limited on the terms of a licence agreement for the construction and operation of a community battery since 2023. At Council’s meeting in March this year, the organisation endorsed the terms of the agreement.

The 500 kWh battery system is to be installed in the Narrabri Town Hall car park, which is also home to a couple of NRMA EV chargers. There would be no costs to Council and the community battery will be owned and operated by Geni.Energy.

Among the benefits according to Geni.Energy:

• The community battery would soak up surplus solar electricity during the day, taking pressure off the local electricity network, and discharge stored energy at night.
• More and bigger rooftop solar power systems could be installed in Narrabri.
• Profits from the battery would be funneled into a local project fund, with projects guided by a Community Advisory Group.
• While it won’t provide backup power to households or businesses in a blackout, the battery will have external power sockets for use in emergencies.

The 2 x 250 kWh batteries are based lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) technology, widely regarded as the safest lithium-ion chemistry. Safety features of the system include, but aren’t limited to, a dedicated air conditioner and heat and smoke detectors that can trigger an aerosol fire suppressant system. Furthermore, it will be installed on several concrete culverts 900mm high and have railings around the edge of the culverts an additional 1 metre high.

Battery Ready, But …

The project has been funded by the federal Community Batteries for Household Solar program. The battery is ready to go according to Geni.Energy – paid for, designed, and on its way. All that was left to do was get the signature of Council’s General Manager on the licensing agreement.

But during the Narrabri Shire Council ordinary meeting held last week, it was decided the March endorsement be rescinded. Council will delay signing of the licence agreement for a minimum of three months to allow Councillors to get fully across a number of concerns some have; mainly around safety and financial benefit sharing.

Although representatives from Distributed Network Service Provider (DNSP) Essential Energy, engineering firm NJM Design and battery manufacturer Evo Power confirmed the low risks associated with the community battery at the meeting, after a lengthy debate Councillors voted with a majority of five to two to pass the rescission motion.

“No Path Forward”

Geni.Energy Managing Director Sally Hunter was hugely disappointed with the outcome.

“It was a pretty disgraceful situation. The good news is I was so thrilled with the community support,” Ms. Hunter said. “We had 60 or 70 letters of support into the council. We had 20 phone calls of support into Council. We had 6 or 7 people put their name down to speak. It was just very clear how much community support there was.”

The support isn’t surprising given Narrabri is a rooftop solar power stronghold. In the 2390 postcode area, more than 2,858 small-scale PV systems with a collective capacity of 14,196 kW had been installed as at the end of February this year. That’s pretty impressive for a population of around 7,600.

Ms. Hunter says Council’s decision gives Geni.Energy no path forward, but to stay tuned. The clock is ticking on the funding agreement and there’s Narrabri community pride at stake – Geni.Energy says it was one of only two not-for-profits in the nation awarded federal funding in the 2023 round.

The Narrabri Community Battery saga follows another recent electrification-related local government backflip.  At its April 15 meeting, Queensland’s Livingstone Shire Council delayed plans to install the first public EV charging stations on the Capricorn Coast based on a Channel 7 anti-EV beat-up.