By Ian Tobin
Last year, 2030Yea established a partnership with Indigo Power and RMIT School of Engineering to develop a business plan for a neighbourhood battery in Yea.
On April 10, we are hosting a meeting to update the community on this project. You can get your free ticket here.
From left to right: Ian Tobin (2030Yea); Lasantha Meegahapolo (RMIT) and Heath Shakespeare (Indigo Power)
The team
Since receiving funding, the team ably lead by Heath Shakespeare (Indigo Power) with valuable data provided by Dr. Lasantha Meegahapolo (RMIT School of Engineering) has been busy working with 2030Yea to develop the business plan with key deliverables to date including:
- Desk audit of possible sites to locate the neighbourhood battery
- Physical audit of short-listed neighbourhood battery sites
- Detailed analysis of electrical infrastructure to a transformer level of Yea and surrounds including power usage, time based and seasonality, plus solar feed in
- Data source – AusNet and synthesised via google maps to confirm missing solar feeds
- Detailed analysis of each short-listed location which includes sizing of battery based on available power and solar, the idea being to capture solar generated energy, store and return energy back at times of need.
- Identification of peak demand times for Yea along with seasonality plus network constraints of both wires and transformers.
- Community engagement – we want residents to understand what we are doing and to have their say.
2030Yea has been investigating practical ways to assist residents of Yea to transition to resilient and carbon reduced power since 2020. The journey to date has involved getting solar panels and battery storage on key community buildings including the Rec Reserve, where a fully islandable infrastructure has been installed – islandable means it works when the main grid power isn’t available. The Rec Reserve includes solar generation, battery storage and integrated diesel power thereby providing great utility. The diesel generator only comes into play when the demand outstrips the solar and battery. Short term outages, for example, would not require the diesel generator to kick in, thereby saving costs.
Funding
There’s been increasing talk about larger scale neighbourhood batteries and 2030Yea has been seeking a funding opportunity for this. There are two main funding sources one federal and one state and 2030Yea identified a State Government DEECA (Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action) grant that would potentially provide the required funding support. To meet the stringent key selection criteria, 2030Yea coordinated the joint venture where Indigo Power is the lead, supported by RMIT and 2030Yea. Our application was also explicitly supported by Murrindindi Council and AusNet. The approach was successful, and Yea has joined a very select group of towns who are seeking to implement neighbourhood batteries.
2030Yea can demonstrate a pathway of successfully assisting the community. The neighbourhood battery business plan is another very substantial achievement, about which all residents should be justifiably proud.
