Western Power has announced that it will receive funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) under its Stream A Community Battery Funding program.
More community batteries will be installed across the South West Interconnected System to enable greater storage and use of renewable energy, which is expected to reduce emissions and ease pressure on the network during peak times.
Western Power’s Executive of Energy Transition and Sustainability, Matt Cheney, said, “We are very pleased to have been a successful applicant in the program which will see more community batteries installed on Western Power’s network.”
Western Power said that specific locations for the batteries are yet to be finalised and are subject to community consultation, planning approvals and entry into commercial agreements. All ARENA funding is conditional on the finalisation of funding agreements.
“This funding support from ARENA will help accelerate the deployment of community batteries across the network,” Mr Cheney said.
“Not only will it help reduce or remove barriers to future deployment of much needed storage on the network, it will also assist in building the required industry capability.”
Mr Cheney said community batteries played an important role in contributing to decarbonisation goals as they can soak up excess renewable energy generation from surrounding rooftop solar and facilitate the connection of even more renewable energy to the network.
“The new batteries will add to our existing community battery fleet which we have been deploying since 2018,” Mr Cheney said.
Featured image: A Western Power community battery. Image credit: Western Power.
