Photo by Matt Krumins – Fitzroy 1 community battery from the Yarra Energy Foundation report, Yarra Battery Project
What is your background in relation to community batteries?
Indigo Power’s analyst Nick Mason-Smith
I joined Indigo Power at the start of 2022 to lead a feasibility study on ‘Aggregated Community-Scale Batteries in North East Victoria’. This study was designed to address whether we could replicate Yack01, Yackandandah’s community battery, in other towns across the north east. We investigated how we could make them more commercial, whether they could be used to support the distribution network, and whether they may be able to form or support an islandable microgrid. My background is in engineering research. I deal with modelling and data analysis, so the quantitative components of the role have been a great fit, and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with energetic and passionate volunteers from community energy groups!
What is a community battery?
Excellent question! The terms community and community-scale are commonly combined or blended – sometimes deliberately. We are engaging in a war of words to ensure that government-funded community batteries are not community solely in their scale. I’ll quote here from researchers at ANU on this topic, who opt for the term neighbourhood battery:
Regarding terminology, we have opted for the term neighbourhood batteries. Another term used in the literature is community energy storage (CES). However, we opt for a term that describes the location of the battery, because it is by no means given that the battery will have the features of a community energy project. There is established literature on community energy which, while broad, considers community energy to involve some level of community ownership and/or decision-making power. While it is possible that the community may be involved in neighbourhood scale storage, and thus that they may select to employ the term community battery, it is also currently feasible for models which may not meet the definition of community energy, for instance where the battery is owned by a distribution network with minimal involvement from the community. We define neighbourhood batteries as a <5MW battery located in front of the meter in the distribution network, which may provide a range of functions, be owned by variety of actors to provide a wide range of potential services and values.
Cartoon by Bev Dick
To paraphrase: a neighbourhood battery can be a community battery, but not all neighbourhood batteries are community batteries (and not all community batteries are neighbourhood batteries). When talking about a community battery, we quite possibly have in mind a battery that stores locally generated renewable energy, and is owned and managed by the community with any profit being returned to the community. The battery benefits the whole community with profit being used for community good, for example, towards bulk buying of heat pumps. This would be a useful model but not easily achieved. These are challenging projects, however with the right partnerships and project objectives, it is possible for a community battery to be a community energy project, and for a community to have some control of the battery and the economic benefits.
What do power companies think about community battery projects?
Power companies will argue that neighbourhood batteries will reduce the need to expand the grid to cope with new solar entering it, and this in turn will keep prices down for customers. Accessible network data, or knowing how much solar is entering the grid and where it is coming from, would enable battery backers like Indigo Power and other organisations, to find these solar hotspots and target projects towards them. Accessing data has been a major problem for neighbourhood battery projects not led by an energy distributor e.g. AusNet. One also needs to ask why controlled-load hot water systems, which are operated by the network, continue to be run overnight – when they could be run during the day to help the grid cope with new solar entering it. There is more at play than simply managing the network.
There are trials underway to test the viability of different models of ownership and management of both neighbourhood and community scale batteries. Neighbourhood batteries can benefit communities, but it isn’t clear how network-owned batteries leased to the highest bidder will benefit local communities.
We should also keep an open mind to alternate ways of achieving the same results – as mentioned above, something actionable that provides a tangible value to customers is to store excess solar energy in heating water. (A 315 L hot water cylinder stores more energy than a Tesla Powerwall!)
*Editor’s note: 2030Yea is way ahead on this score having already done the research and organised William Ertler to speak on this topic, referred to as ‘load-shifting’. Come to the information night on February 9 and read our interview on load-shifting with William Ertler ‘Your hot water system may be the best solar storage of all’ for an excellent examination of the concept.
The federal government is rolling out funding for 400 community batteries to be developed across Australia and the state government is rolling out 100 neighbourhood batteries across the state – we want to make sure power companies are not going to be the only ones benefitting from the funding.
Where does the Yack01 fit in with this?
Yack01 community battery from Nick Mason-Smith presentation at ANU 2022
Yack01 has been difficult to classify within existing terminologies. I’ve referred to it as a behind-the-meter community battery. It is located at the Agency of Sculpture in Yackandandah and is much larger than the requirements of the site. It charges from a 65-kW solar array located on the roof of the Agency of Sculpture – that is it stores solar, but it does not store our customers’ solar. The vast majority of the energy stored in the battery is discharged into the grid and is sold to our customers. The Yack01 battery is owned by Indigo Power, a community-owned for-purpose social enterprise, so it therefore benefits the whole community. Yack01 could alternatively be described as a community power plant. Whatever you call it the Yack01 is an actionable model and could be replicated across other communities. Solar gardens are another model that work like a community power plant, in a similar way to Yack01.
What about Yea?
Photo by Yasin Gulec – Yea football/cricket club solar array
A town like Yea could use the current government funding to add to the PV and battery storage at the Recreation Reserve to increase local renewable energy production even more, further reduce the facility’s electricity bills, and very importantly, increase the town’s resilience in times of emergency. The site would be islandable and have backup power. Solar PV output is greatly reduced by bushfire smoke so the system wouldn’t completely alleviate the need for diesel generators – but batteries couple well with diesel gensets as they provide the load which makes the generator efficient and prevent cylinder glazing. If the battery were large enough and regulations changed, it may be able to form a microgrid and island some of the main street, including the pubs. In normal, non-emergency times the earnings from excess power being fed into the grid could be used in ways to benefit the whole community. With the right ownership and management model this is something Yea might consider. Indigo Power and other similar companies are seeking to apply for funding under the scheme, in partnership with groups like 2030Yea to implement this kind of community battery, or as in Yea’s case, build on the good work already done.
