New “VPP ready” home battery offering lands in Australia

Energy storage company Chelion has quietly announced the arrival in Australia of its new residential battery storage offering, the iHome.

Chelion Australia, the Brisbane-based subsidiary of Chinese parent company Chelion Renewable Group, said on Monday that the first containers of the battery units had landed in Australia, ready for delivery to customers.

“We are thrilled to announce that our first Australian containers of high voltage residential units have landed!,” the company said on LinkedIn.

“These all-in-one VPP-ready …systems come equipped with internal smart metering and a powerful EMS [energy management system].”

The modular, lithium iron phosphate DC/AC coupled iHome-S-HD1H01 batteries can range in capacity from 5kWh to 40kWh.

The batteries promise a round trip efficiency of around 90% and offer a number of operational modes, including off-grid, time-of-use, energy scheduling and back-up power of up to 7.8kW.

Chelion says the battery’s in-built EMS can be tailored to meet user-defined targets and distribute system resources appropriately.

“The EMS also continuously collects big data, such as weather and grid rates, to improve accuracy and optimise performance.

According to the brochure, each battery also comes with a built-in DC/DC converter and is “pre-optimised to deliver high levels of safety.”

In a LinkedIn post on Monday, Chelion Australia said that the lion’s share of the newly shipped batteries had already been pre-sold, while those that are left are available through the company’s wholesale partner, Solar Energy Warehouse.