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Connecting a Community Battery

Community Batteries

Connecting a Community Battery

Community batteries are scalable and flexible solutions that can help stabilise the grid and prepare local communities as we increasingly decarbonise and electrify our homes and transport.

You do not have to formally partner with Ausgrid to install a community battery. If you are interested in installing a community battery in your area, you may wish to obtain in-principle agreement from Ausgrid for a suitable network connection point.

You can choose to submit a preliminary enquiry, or directly progress to the connections applications process and avoid the additional cost of a preliminary enquiry, however for speculative projects the preliminary enquiry provides more flexibility. We will respond to your enquiry within 10 business days.

Undertaking a preliminary enquiry has an upfront non-refundable fee of $473.07, so we recommend you check that you can meet any criteria required before submitting.

In particular, check that:

  • You have obtained or can obtain access to a site for the community battery and associated equipment to be installed.
  • When applying for funding opportunities, you meet the eligible entities and projects criteria and understand the eligible expenditure covered under the program (as an example, ongoing operational expenditure may not be covered).

Below are some answers to additional questions you might have. While these provide some background information, we recommend you seek your own advice before applying for the program.

Community Battery funding opportunities

The Australian Government has committed to funding $224.3 million to help install 400 community batteries across the country.

The Program aims to deploy community batteries across Australia to help lower bills, cut emissions and reduce pressure on the electricity grid by allowing neighbourhoods to store and use the excess power they produce.

In December 2022, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) released the funding guidelines for the first 58 community batteries along with identification of eligible locations. Six of the locations are within the Ausgrid network.

Ausgrid has been awarded grants to deliver the community batteries in Bondi/Bondi Beach, Breakfast Point/Cabarita, Cammeray, Narara, Warriewood and North Epping.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will deliver the remaining funding streams and is expecting to release their final round of funding in late 2023.

Frequently Asked Questions