Australia's Victorian state government has provided a round of funding for "neighbourhood-scale" battery energy storage, while in Western Australia, an all-vanadium flow battery will be deployed at a mine.
Both projects are designed to demonstrate the capabilities of distributed energy storage.
The Multiple Values of "Neighbourhood Batteries"
Neighbourhood batteries are sized to serve the entire community, enabling residents in the community to benefit from rooftop photovoltaics without having to invest in a battery system for every home.
At the same time, neighborhood batteries are smaller than utility-scale batteries, making them easier to site, potentially faster to build, and less expensive.
The Victorian government has awarded A$10.92 million (US$7.59 million) to support projects through its Neighborhood Battery Initiative grants program.
The team of experts from the Australian National University's Battery Energy Storage and Grid Integration Project said these systems are typically between 0.1MW and 5MW and range in size from a wardrobe to a shipping container.
"What makes neighborhood batteries a particularly interesting form of energy storage is that they have the potential to address the issue of equitable energy use, providing benefits to all energy users," the academic said. Anyone who doesn't have PV installed can benefit from Neighborhood Batteries."
Through a series of socio-technological-economic studies, researchers at the Australian National University have uncovered many benefits of the neighbourhood battery model, which is defined differently than "community battery" because the latter implies co-ownership of the community, while This is not necessarily the case.
However, the Australian National University team did find that community batteries are only economical if the local grid electricity price can provide a discount.
The Victorian government's planned approach is to fund projects that can generate revenue from a variety of sources, including energy storage's participation in frequency regulation ancillary services in the Australian National Electricity Market.
The first round of grants totalling $3.68 million has been awarded to 16 different organisations in 2021, and the second round, which opened for applications on June 6 and runs until July 29, 2022, will provide $2.32 million in funding.
The bidding entity is required to be responsible for the installation and commissioning of the project, demonstrating its ability to develop multiple values, and other similar initiatives, commonly referred to as "community batteries", have been rolled out across Australia.
One such project is the five-year Alkimos Beach Energy Storage Trial (ABEST) project in Western Australia, which is able to reduce grid load by 85% during peak periods, in addition, about 100 rooftop PV systems have been installed in the region with 1.1MWh of Lithium-ion battery energy storage system.
However, ABEST project partner Synergy, a state-owned electricity generation and sales utility, found that the model was difficult to sustain without subsidies.
Meanwhile, Australian energy market operator AEMO will make it easier for battery storage to participate in the national electricity market.
Flow batteries power mining pumps with 100% renewable energy
In Western Australia, a project funded by the Australian government will install a 300kWh all-vanadium flow battery at a mine site.
Australian Vanadium is a company developing primary vanadium resources and processing and producing electrolytes, and its subsidiary VSUN Energy is responsible for marketing and promoting all-vanadium flow battery technology.
VSUN Energy is designing and building a flow battery-based stand-alone power system for the Nova Nickel Operation nickel mine site.
During the test, Australian Vanadium and VSUN will demonstrate the system and its capabilities to mining companies, utilities and other companies interested in all-vanadium flow batteries.
All-vanadium flow batteries will be installed on nickel, cobalt and copper mines for mining use, free of charge for the first year of operation, after which miners will have the option to buy or lease the system from VSUN Energy.
The mine will use an independent power system to power the continuously running mining pumps, running on 100% renewable energy, reducing the site's carbon footprint while saving on fuel and maintenance costs.
