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What is a community battery?

A community battery, is a mid-scale energy storage unit (typically about the size of a small 4WD vehicle). It is designed for a neighbourhood, which allows the wider community to access and store renewable energy. Community batteries are sometimes referred to also as a neighbourhood-scale batteries. This is a broader and more neutral term referring to batteries of this scale, but they do not necessarily involve the community or focus on community benefits.

The project

The community battery project is located in Fitzroy North in the City of Yarra, Victoria. It will be the testing grounds for Melbourne’s first inner-urban community battery. The initiative has received funding through the Victorian Government’s Neighbourhood Battery Initiative to demonstrate the community support, operational, and technical viability of community batteries. Through the project, YEF and partners hope to learn:

• How to design a system which is financially sustainable, and ideally replicable and scalable.
• How to work with the community and stakeholders and incorporate their feedback and ideas into the design of the trial.
• How to design for and manage concerns about equity and energy affordability.
• How battery control software can be optimised to manage the flows of electricity and interfaces with users.
• How to ensure that a battery model operates within existing regulatory guidelines.
• How to deploy a battery on the ground within planning regulations.

Read more about our community engagement activities.