Why a community battery?
Graeme Martin talks with Wendall from ModoEnergy about why Village Power chose the route of a community battery and in terms of size, what it is and how a community battery is defined.
ModoEnergy: Graeme, what inspired you to start Village Power?
Graeme: Community batteries weren't necessarily the focus initially … it was just about energy. I spent about a year in the wilderness talking to different people about what you could do in the energy space and I got some very wise advice from a community person who said, 'Form a team - form a team of ninjas - that is, people with a diverse set of skills and figure out what you want to do with them', and that's what I did. That's how I started Village Power (though) we weren't called Village Power initially. We spent quite a bit of time talking to other players like the energy players, from government to politicians to other community groups doing something in this space, and we used the time to decide how to make the most impact at a community level on climate change.
We came up with the idea of putting a battery in front of the meter. That means it's directly connected to the network. It's not connected behind the meter - and we figured that that was going to have the most impact particularly if that could be used as a resource - a shared resource - by the community. It would become a virtual battery for them and that would move them to 100% renewable energy. We could have looked at a battery behind the meter, we could have looked at a mini-solar farm but that would not have had as much impact. We chose this path because it was difficult and would have the most impact.
ModoEnergy: What is it about placing (the battery) in front of the meter that means it has a bigger impact?
Graeme: It means that multiple households will have access - not directly - it's through the network but it means it's not limiting access to anyone. It's open to all in terms of access. You are also having the cumulative effect of a community-scale battery rather than a household battery. It's a bigger battery so it is going to have a greater impact in terms of energy storage and energy distribution.
We also wanted to do something that would engage the community and what we have found over the last several years, is that the idea of a community battery inspires people - and gets them onboard - and we want to use that motivation to encourage people to participate in this because it's about moving to 100% renewables. In the middle of the day, there's a lot of energy available and if you use that, it is most likely renewable and what you are doing with the battery, is you are capturing that excess in the middle of the day and you are time-shifting it to the end of the day.
If you are a member of the community and you are treating that as your battery and your storage, a component of that battery is dedicated to your set amount of energy storage in the evening, and effectively you're using that renewable energy in the middle of the day and also the evening.
ModoEnergy: How has the term community battery come to the fore in Australia? What is the story behind community batteries?
Graeme: It is a very clever marketing term I believe. I'm not sure how it originated but it has certainly captured the hearts and minds of people because it resonates with them but really if you look fundamentally at what it is, it's a mid-size battery, it's not a household domestic battery, it's not a big battery - like a big long-storage battery. It is probably between 250 and 500kWh in terms of capacity but from my point of view it's a bit like the Goldilocks size. It's this mid-size and that has a range of purposes and that depends on who's using it and what they want to get out of the battery. The term community - I'm not sure who named it that - but it certainly has inspired people to want to learn about them and for community groups to use them.