Inner West Community Battery Information Session

Inner West Community Battery Meet'n'greet session

2:00pm

Agenda

Meet'n'Greet session

Engagement with community groups, Ausgrid, Inner West Council's Green Living Centre

2:30pm

Formal proceedings

Welcome to Country – Aunty Deb Lennis

Welcome -Mayor Darcy Byrne, Inner West Council

Introductory comments – Dr Margaret Vickers, Inner West Community Batteries

3:00pm Presentation - Ausgrid’s community battery program

Alan Luc, Community Battery Systems Lead

Sophia Ryan, Stakeholder Manager Energy Transition & Strategy

3:20pm Discussion 4:00pm Afternoon Tea

Community Batteries

Why we need them

What they can do for us

Our

energy system

is undergoing a revolution

Power now comes from multiple sources –including “wild card” rooftop solar

Utility - scale infrastructure

• Slow to construct

• Expensive

• NIMBY issues

Community level infrastructure

Surplus power from local rooftop solar is harvested. It is -

Stored in community batteries, Shared by all in the local network, & Saved rather then curtailed

One simplified model

Suggests ways that power flows between household solar and the grid, when a battery is installed

Surplus power in the battery can also be transferred to the highvoltage lines

Community Batteries

Alan Luc Sophia Ryan

Distribution network is the “sweet spot” for battery location

Sweet spot where ability to provide value along the supply chain and economies of scale are high

Community Battery Concept

Distribution Household

Behind the meter battery

Community battery

Sub-transmission

Utility scale battery (medium)

Transmission

Utility scale battery (large)

Ausgrid’s Community Battery Trial

Phase 1 tests network and customer use cases

Phase 2 integrates market use cases

Phase 3 transition to a sustainable model

Ausgrid’s Community Battery trial is a flagship project within our network innovation program and was co-designed with the Network Innovation Advisory Committee (NIAC).

Key learnings from our community battery trial

• Community engagement: proactive upfront engagement with councils and communities and considering their feedback in our design is key

• Safety and clearance: batteries must be accessible and have a certain clearance zone around the immediate vicinity of the battery

• Road traffic: where possible, our preference is to locate the battery in low-traffic zones or install barriers to minimise risks of vehicle collisions. We also take care to ensure the battery does not obscure vehicular traffic view

• Noise: we maintain ambient battery noise levels below the thresholds set by the Environmental Protection Agency

• Environmental and heritage considerations: we prefer to minimise vegetation clearance, consider water ingress risks and assess sites for potential cultural or heritage significance

• Network configuration: where possible, minimal upgrades to the network to connect the battery are preferred. The intention is to install batteries to mitigate the need for traditional network augmentation

• Network support: given the above considerations are met, we select locations where batteries provide maximum network support –selecting initial regions for assessment based on likely network benefits (e.g. where the battery can avoid or delay future network upgrades) helps to optimise this

• Storage as a service: this is not a scalable model yet due to current

Community

Noise Water ingress

Community consultation

battery trial sites: Beacon Hill, Bankstown, Cameron Park

Empowering communities through community batteries

• The Federal Government has committed $224.3 million to help install up to 400 Community Batteries across the country.

• Funding is being released in three streams:

• Stream 1 (56 eligible locations) and Stream 2 (2 eligible locations), submissions opened 31 January 2023 and closed 24 February 2023.

• Grant applications submitted 24 February 2023.

• We applied for the six eligible locations within Ausgrid’s footprint – Bondi/Bondi Beach, Breakfast Point/Cabarita, Cammeray, Narara, Warriewood, North Epping.

• Stream 3 administered by Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

• Public webinar and round 1 expression of interest were released in April 2023. EOIs close 30 June 2023.

• Ausgrid is working through a strategy to support the delivery of more community batteries in our network area.

Narara community battery event

Cabarita community battery event

DCCEEW grant timeline and Ausgrid community engagement timeline

Community battery engagement

Purpose Test location, wrap design, benefits and online information hub with local residents around the battery site

Postcar d Invited local residents to onsite ‘drop-in’ session (approx 200m around the battery site)

Survey 1. Are you comfortable with Mitchell Park as the preferred location for the community battery project?

2. We are exploring the idea of wrapping the battery in a First Nations artwork that will reflect the rich heritage of the area. Do you have any feedback on this proposed design?

3. What benefits from community batteries are you most interested in? (rank from most important to least important)

• Allows more rooftop solar to be installed in your local area

• More solar energy will be kept locally and shared within your local community

• Improves the network voltage and allows more rooftop solar to be exported to the grid

• Supporting more connections, such as Electric Vehicle charging

4. What information would you like to see in the information hub? (multiple choice)

• Local emissions data

• Local solar consumption

• Hosting capacity

• Other (free text field)

5. Do you have any other questions or feedback for this project?

Community batteries offer shared benefits

• Allows more rooftop solar and electric devices, such as electric vehicle chargers to be connected.

• Strengthens the grid reducing the need to limit (curtail) solar exports and help customers maximise their solar investment.

• Helps share more solar within the local area, including to non-solar households.

• Creates a positive impact on wholesale electricity prices that could eventually flow through to reduced retail customer offers.

• Helps to regulate voltage on the network and improves network quality in the local area.

• Offers a flexible alternative to traditional poles and wires investment and helps lower network costs.

• Access to an online information hub where the community can see how much energy was stored and used daily.

During the day, excess solar is stored in the battery via the grid

o Stored energy can be drawn from the grid during high energy periods or the evening

Communities can learn about the battery and how it operates daily

Community Batteries

Visit the links below for more information.

Ausgrid

• https://www.ausgrid.com.au/In-your-community/Community-Batteries

• https://yoursay.ausgrid.com.au/

Federal Grants

• https://business.gov.au/grants-and-programs/community-batteries-for-household-solar-stream-1

• https://arena.gov.au/funding/community-batteries-round-1/

Discussion

3:20pm Moderated by Mayor Darcy Byrne

Alan Luc, Community Battery Systems Lead

Sophia Ryan, Stakeholder Manager Energy Transition & Strategy

Dr Margaret Vickers, Inner West Community Batteries