Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan and Energy Minister Bill Johnston today announced that Kalgoorlie-Boulder will receive the region's first community battery.
Located on Dart Street, Western Power's utility-grade battery will be integrated into the network, improving power quality and providing benefits for the entire community by smoothing the daytime and peak-time load periods.
It will also enable homes and businesses in Kalgoorlie to continue integrating more rooftop solar and new technologies onto the grid.
The rollout of community batteries is a key action of the Distributed Energy Resources Roadmap, which was released by Minister Johnston in April 2020.
In 2018, the McGowan Government completed an initial feasibility study into opportunities for solar in the Goldfields.
As part of the study, a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) was identified as a potential option to provide better power management and improve reliability, which is fundamental to enabling the economic development and growth of the region.
A key component of the VPP is the integration of energy storage and Western Power's community battery was identified as the most cost-effective and quickest way to achieve this.
From October, Synergy will recruit 50 eligible regional customers via the PowerBank partnership with Western Power. Customers will be able to make the most of their solar system by virtually storing excess energy generated - of up to 8kWh a day.
The rollout of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder community battery has been enabled by the McGowan Government's recent Electricity Industry Amendment Bill 2019 passing State Parliament.
