Thank you to everyone who was able to attend our inaugural community battery meeting on 28th September.
For those who couldn't make it, we stepped through a few different background explaining videos to ensure everyone was on the same page about what the National Electricity Market is, what role storage has to play and what some different community battery projects are in Australia.
Below are the links to each of these videos for you to watch at your leisure.
Key Messages
Attendees to the meeting listed the key benefits that they saw from the community battery, these are listed below here. As we stepped through how this battery fits into the National Electricity Market and the changing landscape of electricity generation in Australia, some more possible benefits were added. Attendees started to think about the role of the battery in providing support to the grid to even out the supply/demand curves and how ownership of a community could create returns for shareholders, even if they were not able to directly sell their excess solar to the battery.
Where To From Here?
The University of NSW School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering has been developing a financial model for the community battery. They are currently assessing three different models that we would like to present to the community in coming weeks.
Meanwhile, we are eagerly awaiting the federal budget to be released in October to learn more about the commitment for a community battery to Narrabri.
We will keep you updated through emails so keep an eye out!
Links for Your Learnings
To review the same short vids that the attendees watched, here are the links the time slots that we watched (feel free to watch longer if you are enjoying it).
Overview of the NEM - ABC Catalyst Program - https://iview.abc.net.au/video/SC2002H007S00 (8.40-11.40)
Basics of storage - Western Power - https://www.westernpower.com.au/our-energy-evolution/projects-and-trials/powerbank-community-battery-storage/ (0-1.30 mins)
Overview of Community Batteries - ANU researchers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npwhuildLGg (0-4mins)
Battery Projects across Australia - ANU researchers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYzGmqIN74U (12.30 – 16.40)
Third Party ownership Battery - Yarra Energy Foundation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYzGmqIN74U (30.41 – 35)
Benefits Identified by Narrabri Locals - In their own words!
Possible Benefits of community battery:
Climate driven need for transition
Better utilisation of our solar
Reliable source of renewables (when the sun is not shining)
Improves accessibility to battery technology
Reduces the costs for more people to get access to storage (who might not be able to afford their own battery)
To have cheaper power at night time (the differentiation in buy/sell price)
Opportunity to learn from trusted source about batteries and other things renewables
Independence / freedom from large energy retailers
Make it clearer for how people can share excess energy leading to possible new industry utilising excess energy
Build community “feel” and momentum for renewables as it is a visible project
Build a resource for the community, building security and equity
Building resilience (coverage for outages or emergencies)
Finding solutions to a continuing reducing feed-in-tariff
Helping more people understand about renewables and storage
Reducing risk of charges for feeding in excess solar
Could provide grid services
And make us money as owners or shareholders in the battery project!
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