The Albanese and Cook Labor Governments today launched five new community batteries across Perth to help cut energy bills, lower emissions, and improve local power reliability.
Through the Albanese Government’s $200 million Community Batteries for Household Solar program, Western Power was awarded $2.5 million to develop community batteries in Coogee, Kinross, Bayswater, Stratton and Port Kennedy.
At a combined 500kW/2.8MWh, these five community batteries will service around 350 households including renters, people who live in apartments, and properties where solar panels can’t be installed.
Connected households can save up to $132 annually, together with a 4kWh off-peak offset under a retail subscription product being developed by Synergy for release later in the year.
The Coogee battery is now on, with Kinross, Bayswater and Stratton to be operational shortly. Construction at Port Kennedy is expected to begin shortly. They will add to another 13 community batteries already in place across the South West Interconnected System.
The Albanese and Cook Governments are also collaborating to ensure 100,000 households can take advantage of the WA Residential Battery Scheme, enabling them to store the renewable power they generate at home, receive ongoing cost-of-living relief and help secure the State’s clean energy future.
The WA scheme is a combination of the $337 million WA Household Battery Rebate and the $2.3 billion Federal Government Cheaper Home Batteries program.
It offers rebates for batteries and no-interest loans to help with the cost of installing solar systems and batteries.
Western Australia’s potential as a renewable energy and clean industry powerhouse has attracted significant Australian Government investment.
The Boddington Giga Battery, Merredin Big Battery, Muchea Battery and Waroona Renewable Energy Projects have successfully bid for support in Western Australia’s first tender under the Capacity Investment Scheme. Together with three other large battery projects – at Collie and Kwinana – this makes WA the leading adopter of grid scale batteries.
The Albanese Government has also invested $20.8 million in Project Jupiter which aims to help Western Australian households to benefit from the scale and coordination provided by Virtual Power Plants (VPP)p;
Nationwide, the Community Batteries for Household Solar program will install 400 batteries to provide shared storage for households across Australia.