Regional Alliances Neighbourhood Battery Investigation
Image Source: Indigo Power
In September 2023, CVGA received one of nine grants though the Victorian Government’s Neighbourhood Battery Initiative (Round 3) to develop business cases for neighbourhood batteries in 21 participating municipalities across regional Victoria, including nine CVGA council areas. This project was led by CVGA, in partnership with the Goulburn Murray Climate Alliance, Gippsland Alliance for Climate Action, and technical consultants Indigo Power.
The project built on previous feasibility studies undertaken by CVGA (Community Sparks) and responded to an identified need to enhance energy resilience in regional and rural areas experiencing the impacts of climate change, and where energy reliability is an ongoing challenge, with a focus on behind-the-meter neighbourhood batteries at council-owned facilities providing critical emergency relief and energy resilience services to the community.
Site assessments, technical design and costing, economic modelling, and the development of an individual business case and stakeholder engagement plan was completed for one neighbourhood battery system in each of the 21 participating council areas. Results varied across sites, with 14 of the 21 modelled sites showing a positive financial case, indicating that cost savings could be achieved for councils through the installation of a market-exposed neighbourhood battery, with a system payback period under 10 years. Note that this analysis assumed the availability of up to $300,000 in grant funding with a minimum 10% cash contribution to the battery CAPEX including 100% of any solar PV.
All 21 sites demonstrated potential to achieve energy resilience benefits for local communities, with the modelled battery systems expected to provide backup power to critical circuits at each site for 2-3 days, with the option to extend backup power through an add on management system to enable charging from solar in island mode.
Working across a variety of sites in regional Victoria, the project has contributed to councils’ understanding of the factors that influence the business case for neighbourhood batteries on different council facility types, and the role that councils can play supporting the energy transition and uptake of distributed energy technologies in their communities.
Neighbourhood battery projects present an opportunity for council leadership and capacity building. Councils participating in this project now have a business case that they can use to apply for implementation funding though the 100 Neighbourhood Batteries Program. Implementation of all or some of the 21 neighbourhood battery systems proposed through this project would represent a significant contribution to scaling-up delivery of neighbourhood batteries in Victoria.
This project was completed in August 2024.
The project built on previous feasibility studies undertaken by CVGA (Community Sparks) and responded to an identified need to enhance energy resilience in regional and rural areas experiencing the impacts of climate change, and where energy reliability is an ongoing challenge, with a focus on behind-the-meter neighbourhood batteries at council-owned facilities providing critical emergency relief and energy resilience services to the community.
Site assessments, technical design and costing, economic modelling, and the development of an individual business case and stakeholder engagement plan was completed for one neighbourhood battery system in each of the 21 participating council areas. Results varied across sites, with 14 of the 21 modelled sites showing a positive financial case, indicating that cost savings could be achieved for councils through the installation of a market-exposed neighbourhood battery, with a system payback period under 10 years. Note that this analysis assumed the availability of up to $300,000 in grant funding with a minimum 10% cash contribution to the battery CAPEX including 100% of any solar PV.
All 21 sites demonstrated potential to achieve energy resilience benefits for local communities, with the modelled battery systems expected to provide backup power to critical circuits at each site for 2-3 days, with the option to extend backup power through an add on management system to enable charging from solar in island mode.
Working across a variety of sites in regional Victoria, the project has contributed to councils’ understanding of the factors that influence the business case for neighbourhood batteries on different council facility types, and the role that councils can play supporting the energy transition and uptake of distributed energy technologies in their communities.
Neighbourhood battery projects present an opportunity for council leadership and capacity building. Councils participating in this project now have a business case that they can use to apply for implementation funding though the 100 Neighbourhood Batteries Program. Implementation of all or some of the 21 neighbourhood battery systems proposed through this project would represent a significant contribution to scaling-up delivery of neighbourhood batteries in Victoria.
This project was completed in August 2024.
Participating Councils
