In a “first” for Australia, a 105kW/420kWh Tesla PowerBank will be installed to provide 52 homes with shared access to energy storage for a 24-month trial.
The 52 shares of the community battery in Mandurah, Western Australia— which will be jointly owned and operated by Western Power and Synergy— sold in less than two weeks.
Each of the customers will be allocated a maximum of 8kWh of virtual storage— at the cost of AUD1 (US$0.72) per day— which they will use to store energy from solar panels during the day, and drawn down the power to avoid evening peak charge periods.
This trial is said to mark the first time in Australia that a utility-scale battery has been integrated into an exiting major metropolitan network. Participating customers will be free to leave the two-year trial scheme at any time.
Western Australia’s energy minister Ben Wyatt said: “Storage isn’t necessarily the best solution for every Western Australian with solar on their roof, but this innovative product offering increases choice for customers here in the west.”
