The ACT government has called for expressions of interest in developing a community-scale battery to support homes and the grid in one of the territory’s first all-electric, solar powered suburbs.
Jacka is a greenfield suburb of Gungahlin, north of Canberra, that is on track to be the second all-electric suburb in the ACT. It also aims to be one of its most sustainable, too, with what the government describes as the “pontential” to mandate solar and battery storage for each new dwelling.
But regardless of whether all of Jacka’s new homes have solar or storage, they will definitely not have gas – at least, not from a reticulated gas network. To this end, the addition of a community battery aims to help phase out gas without blowing out peak electricity demand and pushing up power prices through costly grid upgrades.
And that’s not all. According to the tender documents, the Jacka Community-Scale Battery Initiative also aims to improve network reliability, share the benefits of renewables across the community, support increased rooftop solar uptake, and share valuable learnings.
Jacka’s newest development stage will feature around 700 single residential and multi-unit homes and a local centre. The ACT government says residents of all dwellings will be encouraged to install rooftop solar, with excess energy able to be stored locally in the planned battery.
The ACT government’s Suburban Land Agency (SLA) says it has not yet landed on a size or energy storage duration for the community battery, but it has been working with the ANU, Evoenergy and other key stakeholders on the project’s design and development.
“We are now seeking responses to an Expression of Interest (EOI), the first step in a two-stage tender process, for a head contractor for the Jacka Battery Initiative: Community-Scale Battery Storage System,” the SLA says here.
“Applications close at 2pm (Local ACT time), Tuesday 17 January 2023.”
Home batteries or shared storage
Elsewhere in the ACT, another all-electric, gas-free suburb, Ginninderry Estate, has sought support from both a subsidised residential battery roll-out and a grid-connected 2.5MW and 5MWh Tesla Megapack.
In the home battery trial, Evoenergy, which is Canberra’s main electricity and gas power network provider, says it aims to explore how small-scale solar and batteries interact with local electrical infrastructure in areas of 100 per cent solar uptake.
The Tesla Megapack, meanwhile, is to be located in the nearby suburb of Holt and paired with a 500kW solar farm. The project’s developer, Elvin Group, says the battery will bolster grid reliability and participate in Frequency Control and Ancillary Services (FCAS) markets. It will also have the capacity to provide around an hour of backup electricity supply for around 5,400 Canberra households.
For Jacka, SLA supported a group of ANU Masters students to investigate how a community battery could be safely, reliably and sustainably scaled, and how to unlock its full potential, with a specific focus on the community.
SLA says the result was a “fantastic report,” recommending early community engagement, clear communication on how the battery works, a focus on the value it can provide, an all-in approach to give residents equal access to the resource, and attention to detail on the battery’s appearance and interfaces.
All-electric homes, coming to a suburb near you
The ACT has been a pioneer of all-electric suburbs in Australia. Ginninderry‘s 350-home gas-free precinct kicked off in early 2018 as a joint venture between the government and local landowners, mostly farmers, and developed by Riverview Group.
As One Step has reported, Ginninderry – which required the amendment of Territory development laws to allow for its establishment – swapped out gas and made rooftop solar and smart meters mandatory instead in stage 1 of the suburb.
But these will become increasingly common as more and more state governments set targets to phase out the use of fossil gas in homes – a critical step in decarbonisation that promises the bonus effect of slashing residential energy bills.
Victoria’s Labor government was the first to do this in July of this year, unveiling a Gas Substitution Roadmap starting with incentives for households to shift to electric appliances, and the removal of the planning requirement for new developments to be connected to gas.
The ACT followed in August, unveiling plans to phase out the use of fossil gas in Australia’s capital territory by 2045, with the release of a paper modelling the transition to full electrification of homes and businesses over the coming two decades.
“The ACT has become a nation leader on climate action, and now we are making it as easy as possible for Canberra households to benefit from the shift to a low emission technology,” said the territory’s minister for housing and suburban development Yvette Berry.
“Building Jacka – one of Canberra’s newest suburbs – as an all-electric, solar-powered suburb, will save residents money and set the example of how our future suburbs will be powered.”
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
