Not a view you’ll see often – inside the battery box. Photo: James Coleman.
No, it’s not a public toilet.
The new box enclosure beside the John Crawford Crescent playground in Casey – covered in an Indigenous mural featuring the bogong moth and the black cockatoo – is actually the ACT’s latest neighbourhood battery.
It’s part of the ACT Government’s ‘Big Canberra Battery Project’, an effort to build an “ecosystem of batteries across the ACT to ensure that our electricity grid remains stable”.
At the top end of that ecosystem is the massive $ 300 million-plus battery facility under construction in Williamsdale. Once running, it will be able to inject 250 megawatts into the grid when needed – enough to power a third of Canberra for two hours during peak demand.
An artist’s impression of Williamsdale’s Big Battery. Image: ACT Government.
Further down the scale are nine much smaller ‘behind-the-meter’ batteries at ACT Government sites, including at Belconnen Parks Depot, Kambah Depot, Allara Depot and the Cotter Depot, as well as the Chifley Community Hub and the Gungahlin Family and Child Centre.
And sitting in the middle are the neighbourhood-scale batteries – located in Dickson, Fadden and now Casey in Gungahlin.
These three units are built by Evoenergy and funded through the Australian Government’s Community Batteries for Household Solar Program, a $200 million initiative aimed at installing 400 batteries nationwide.
“With over 30 per cent of Canberra households and businesses now having rooftop solar, our network can be put under pressure from high volumes of solar exports,” Evoenergy says.
“This can lead to voltage fluctuations and congestion – similar to a traffic jam on a busy road. Neighbourhood batteries help absorb this excess energy, easing strain on our network and improving the quality of electricity supply.”
Dickson’s unit sits at the Common Ground complex on Hawdon Place, while Fadden’s is near Fadden Primary School on Hanlon Crescent. Casey’s is the newcomer, sitting in a playground.
The battery is about the size of a large fridge. Photo: James Coleman.
Each battery is roughly the size of a large single-door fridge freezer and can power about 100 homes for two hours. They utilise lithium-iron phosphate chemistry, which is heavier but more stable than the lithium-ion chemistry found in phones and laptops, and are expected to last around 15 years.
Evoenergy says the locations were chosen for their “proximity to existing electrical infrastructure and local constraints”, and all passed assessments by the ACT Environment Protection Authority for noise, along with ACT Fire & Rescue for safety.
The units are fitted with smoke and gas detectors and can be monitored or switched off remotely from Evoenergy’s control centre.
Evoenergy can remotely switch the unit on and off. Photo: James Coleman.
“Noise is primarily generated during charging cycles and from air conditioning units that regulate battery temperature,” Evoenergy says.
“We have carefully considered community impacts when selecting battery locations and will use acoustic barriers where needed to redirect sound away from nearby homes.”
Despite being connected to the grid, none of the neighbourhood batteries are fully operational yet.
“They’re still in the final stages of testing and commissioning,” Evoenergy senior engineer Richard Pozza told Region.
“For us, these batteries are a bit of a trial, and what we’re trying to do is test how they work within our network, how they can benefit customers, and how they can improve things. If we can do all this efficiently, it’s something we’ll consider in our investment in the future.”
On the household front, around 1000 homes across Australia have taken up another of the Federal Government’s renewable-energy incentives – the $2.3 billion ‘Cheaper Home Batteries Program’, which cuts 30 per cent off the upfront cost of installing a small-scale home battery.
“And as we continue to build out the solar assets, [batteries] are going to become an even bigger factor of the grid,” Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury Dr Andrew Leigh said.
“So what we’ve got in the middle of the day now is we’ve got an oversupply of solar, so at certain points we’ve got the price going down to zero or sometimes even negative. So by putting that energy into the batteries, we’re able to then use it at a time when the power price is higher.”
An artistic way of saying ‘don’t touch’. Photo: James Coleman.
ACT Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water, Suzanne Orr, claims the batteries will also keep power prices down by saving more expensive overhauls of the electricity network.
“It also helps with managing our peaks, so that we’re better using what we do have rather than building additional capacity into the grid, which adds to the cost for people,” she said.
Dr Leigh says the Federal Government is open to talks about funding more neighbourhood batteries for the ACT.
“We’re going to need more batteries in the system, and the Federal Government’s always looking at how we can better support that.”
Ms Orr says the performance of the three batteries will be monitored over the coming months to identify other suburbs that could benefit.
And for the Casey battery, at least, the outside finish has already been taken care of. Local Wiradjuri artist Kalara Gilbert created the mural, which honours the annual migrations of the Bogong Moth and the Black Cockatoo to Tidbinbilla.
