FAQs

Community batteries are connected to the electricity grid and serve nearby homes and small businesses. With more people getting solar panels and sending energy back to the network, there's a need to store this solar power efficiently. These batteries store excess solar during the day and share the energy back when energy demand is high and solar systems are no longer generating in the evening.

With community batteries, communities can generate, store, and use locally sourced renewable energy, which means all customers, with solar systems or without, can receive benefits from their local community battery.

 The use of community batteries supports renewable energy and plays a key role in allowing our network to transition to a clean energy future.

Community batteries support renewable energy and play a key role in allowing our network to transition to a clean energy future. These batteries store excess solar during the day and share the energy back when energy demand is high and solar systems are no longer generating. Communities can generate, store, and use local renewable energy, receiving better value from their rooftop solar.

The use of batteries across our network provides an innovative way to make new energy solutions available, harness rooftop solar and support regional NSW through the energy transition.

Batteries play a unique role in empowering communities to share and use energy for a better tomorrow. Some of the benefits include:

-Providing customers with opportunities to maximise the value of their energy assets
-Providing customers with new energy solutions
-Supporting a sustainable and clean energy future and helping to accelerate Australia’s transition to net zero
-Providing energy storage solutions to keep downward pressure on network prices
-Batteries can enhance the power quality of energy during peak demand when everyone is using power, alleviating network constraints.

In addition, pole mounted community batteries allow flexibility of location and are placed where they can offer the most benefits to customers and the network.

Community batteries support renewable energy and play a key role in allowing our network to transition to a clean energy future.

Essential Energy is helping NSW reach its goal of a net zero economy by 2050 by upgrading our electricity network with renewable energy sources such as microgrids, solar farms, and community batteries. With the increase in rooftop solar generation, this means there is often excess solar which is generated onto the network, however, remains unused. Community batteries help solve this by storing and sharing this renewable energy.

These batteries also provide opportunities for households without solar panels to use renewable energy. Customers can utilise the benefits of energy storage without large up-front costs, maintenance, or location considerations.

Rooftop solar has transformed how the electricity network is used. There is now a two-way flow of electricity to the grid, sending and receiving.  The use of batteries allows Essential Energy to manage peak demand periods and voltage on our network, especially as solar penetration increases. Batteries are vital for handling these changes, especially during peak demand times.

An alternative to batteries would be to upgrade the electricity network with more transformers, however this would be expensive and offer fewer benefits to communities.

Battery storage enables emissions reductions when it charges during the day from zero emission solar energy and discharges it at times of peak demand in the evening after the sun has gone down, reducing the reliance on non-renewable energy sources.

Individual houses / properties won't be connected to the battery but will continue to be connected to the electricity network. The battery will be connected to the existing Essential Energy network.

Our network charges are just one part of customers’ electricity bills that they receive from energy retailers. There will be no increase on our network charges as a result of this project. In fact, over time, we expect the batteries will actually help reduce network charges for all customers. Deploying these batteries in areas where our networks are constrained replaces the need for us to invest in upgrades to solve these issues.

The community battery trial aims to explore an alternative solar storage concept where solar customers can virtually store their excess solar energy and receive the benefits of solar storage without the need to install a household battery. There are some advantages to accessing storage via a network connected battery instead of installing your own battery:
- customers don't have to pay any upfront battery purchase and installation costs for a network connected battery. The upfront costs of a battery are a significant barrier for many;
- there are no maintenances costs or risks around battery failure/malfunction;
- doesn't take up space on your property and removes any fire risk around having a battery in your home;
- renters and apartment owners generally are unable to install a battery and access the benefits that come with it, a community battery provides these customers with an opportunity to share in the benefits.

Not at the moment, although they do help balance supply and demand and maintain voltage. This is a possibility we’re exploring for the future.

The individual batteries being installed are a similar size to a single door fridge-freezer and generally installed in a configuration of three individual batteries back-to-back.

The batteries selected for the trial are designed, built and tested to stringent requirements. Issues in battery systems typically occur due to factors such as overcharging, physical damage, manufacturing defects, or internal short circuits. To mitigate potential hazards, safety measures such as temperature monitoring, voltage regulation, and protective enclosures have been implemented in the battery systems. While risks with any technology cannot be eliminated, it has been effectively managed through appropriate design, installation, and operational and maintenance practices.

Community batteries are designed with safety in mind, and incorporate rugged enclosures, cutoff mechanisms, and thermal management systems to minimise the risk of thermal incidents and ensure safe operation even in the event of collisions or other unforeseen event. Additionally, proper installation and operation practices and adherence to safety standards further enhance the resilience of battery systems against the event of thermal runaway.

CALL 000 IMMEDIATELY if you see smoke or flames coming from any electrical equipment

Fire and Rescue NSW in collaboration with Rural Fire Service is leading a program which will look at fire service response to lithium-ion battery fires, end-of-life lithium ion battery hazard management, electric vehicle fires in structures, and fire propagation in energy storage systems.

Essential Energy will have responsibility for the maintenance of these assets as the same as we do for other network assets that we own.

Yes, it's safe to be near a battery while it's running and are designed with safety features to ensure they operate safely for both the public and the environment. These batteries are enclosed in protective casings and have built-in mechanisms to prevent accidents.

The battery units have a battery management system and an alarm system that gives us early warning of any faults in our 24/7 control room. The batteries can be remotely disconnected by our control room if required.

Like many electrical appliances and infrastructure, the batteries emit a low-level noise. The noise is like a low ‘hum’ - similar to the noise that a refrigerator or freezer makes. It’s one of the reasons why the locations we select prioritise sites where there is an appropriate distance to homes. All Essential Energy installed batteries comply with the Environmental Protection Authority’s noise guidelines. Noise is primarily produced during charging cycles and from air conditioning units or fans that maintain ambient temperature for the battery. These fans only operate intermittently.

Electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) can be produced by anything with electric current flowing through it, including the powerlines, or your home’s wiring system or electrical appliances. The powerlines or any of the equipment on the lines, like these batteries or more commonly pole-mounted transformers, however, will generally contribute little to the electrical fields that can be measured inside a house or nearby building.

Unlike typical lead acid and similar battery systems, the Lithium-Ion battery units do not emit any gases during their normal operation.

The batteries are Lithium-ion technology, supplied by Pixii.

The batteries are connected into the local electricity network. They will be used to soak up the excess solar energy generated during the day from local rooftop solar systems. Then, when the sun goes down, the stored energy will be released back into the network for use during the evening peak when demand is high.

The aim of the trial is to use the batteries to store solar energy during the day for use locally in the evening when the sun goes down and demand is high. When excess roof top solar energy is exported to the grid it becomes one with all the ‘electrons’ flowing through the powerlines, therefore we can't guarantee the energy will be 100% renewable at all times. The wholesale market or the needs of the network may influence how or when the battery is charged.

The regulations around batteries, particularly in the context of the National Electricity Rules in Australia, are designed to ensure the safe and reliable integration of battery storage into the electricity grid. Batteries under the rules are considered as ‘generation’. To trial and now pilot energy storage connected into the distribution network and help inform the evolution of battery-related regulations, our projects have been supported by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER), with a number of waivers allowing us to work with third parties to develop long-term sustainable models to maximise the benefit batteries can provide. This means we can share the excess capacity of the network-connected batteries with a third party. The insights we gain from these early stages in our battery trials will be used to discuss possible changes to rules if deemed of value.