Australian energy giant AGL announced on Tuesday that it will build and operate 16 community batteries across South Australia which will subsequently be incorporated into the virtual power plant (VPP) AGL acquired from Tesla earlier this month.
Designed specifically to facilitate the sharing of cheaper electricity to social housing tenants and people experiencing financial hardship across the state, the new emPowering SA1 community battery project will be delivered in partnership between AGL and the state government.
A total of 16 new 700 kilowatt (kW), 1,828 kilowatt-hour (kWh) community batteries will be built and paired with two recently commissioned community batteries Magill and Edwardstown. All 18 community batteries will then be coupled with AGL’s VPP and deliver a total of 11.5 megawatts (MW) of flexible storage capacity.
The two 405 kWh community batteries in Magill and Edwardstown were originally announced in March of last year and delivered by October.
“Consumer energy resources like rooftop solar play an incredibly important role in the energy transition, representing an increasing part of Australia’s total energy generation,” said Jo Egan, chief customer officer at AGL.
“If we can use these resources more effectively and efficiently, in ways like community batteries and virtual power plants, this will help us provide more affordable energy to some of the customers who need it the most.
“More than 10,000 low-income and energy hardship households across South Australia will be offered the chance to participate in the emPowering SA community battery project via an AGL energy plan that will be priced at 25 per cent below the current SA default market offer (DMO). These offers will be made over time as the batteries roll out.”
AGL’s commitment to build and operate the new and operational community batteries builds on its acquisition in early July of one of Australia’s first and largest residential virtual power plants. Originally owned by American battery and electric vehicle (EV) giant Tesla, the VPP, consisting of around 7,000 Tesla Powerwall batteries and 25 MW of rooftop solar, changed hands on July 4.
This new commitment also forms part of AGL Community Power, a program which has been designed to find new ways to share the benefits of the renewable energy transition with those without or unable to install rooftop solar and batteries, such as renters and low-income and at-risk households.
Delivery of the emPowering SA batteries is backed by around $11 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) as part of the Community Battery Program Round 1, as well as a further $4 million investment from AGL.
