Australia’s biggest isolated grid to soak up suburban solar with 18 new community batteries

The Australian federal and Western Australian state governments are rolling out 18 new community batteries which will provide a combined 6.6 megawatts (MW) of storage capacity for residents in Perth and Bunbury.

Western Power, the state-owned operator of the WA electricity network, has already begun construction the 18 new community batteries which will be used to soak up local solar generation to redeploy during the evening peak.

All 18 batteries are expected to be online by the middle of next year and will consist of 13 low-voltage batteries spread around Perth’s suburbs, and another 5 medium-voltage batteries in the city of Bunbury.

Locations for each of the batteries were selected in consultation with local governments and residents and chosen to help manage the network in areas with particularly high rooftop solar uptake.

Around 130 households will be connected to each of the 13 batteries in and around Perth, while around 3,600 households will be connected across the five larger Bunbury sites.

The $25 million project is backed by the federal government, with $9.34 million committed through the first round of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) Community Battery program.

“These community batteries will help us make the most of the abundant solar generated during the day by storing and releasing it during the evening peak as the sun goes down,” said Josh Wilson, federal assistant minister for climate change and energy, who was in Coogee to make the announcement.

“Together with more than 45,000 batteries that have been installed at WA homes since 1 July last year, and our state’s nation-leading deployment of large grid-scale batteries at Collie and Kwinana, these 18 community batteries will contribute to cutting network costs while enabling more renewable generation.”

The 18 new community batteries build on five already deployed by the federal government across Perth through its Community Batteries for Household Solar program – located in Coogee, Bayswater, Stratton, Kinross, and Port Kennedy.

The federal government’s Cheaper Home Batteries program has also helped more than 45,000 households and businesses across Western Australia install batteries.

The federal government is also supporting Western Australia’s large-scale generation deployment through its Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS).

Two big batteries – one each in Muchea and Merredin – secured funding under the second CIS round, and three new big batteries and a solar-battery hybrid project were also awarded in CIS Tenders 5 and 6 last month.

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