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Power Melbourne will see a network of mid-scale batteries installed and coordinated across the city. The pilot phase will see three battery energy storage systems – with a combined capacity of 450 kW / 1MWh – installed at Library at the Dock, Boyd Community Hub and a Council House site by mid-2024. This pilot phase is an opportunity to test the Power Melbourne model and gain insights to inform the expansion of the battery network and retail offering in the future.
A future retail electricity plan linked to the batteries will help renters, people living in apartments, and those running small businesses access more affordable renewable electricity. Creating a simple renewable electricity offering will provide residents and businesses an alternative energy plan and support the move towards sustainable energy technology.
This flagship project enables Melbourne to realise its commitment to powering the city with 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030. Accelerating the deployment of state-of-the-art technology at scale will cement Melbourne’s reputation as a global centre for clean energy innovation.
Music
[Speaker: small child] Hello. This is Melbourne. Our great, green active home - a world-leading city on climate action. Kids and grown-ups live, work and play. Friends and families come together to enjoy our open spaces.
Beautiful isn't it? But Melbourne needs our help to make sure it stays this way. The City of Melbourne has set targets for our city to be powered by 100% renewable energy by 2030.
That means we need to make the switch to renewables now, and you can be a part of our city's transformation so the city stays great for us.
Like a big clean energy puzzle we need to all keep that in the pieces until it's finished.
[Speaker: Dave Wandin] Hi. My name is Uncle Dave Wandin an Elder of the Wurrundjeri Woi Wurrung Tribal Land Council.
Many residents and businesses in the city of Melbourne are unable to install their own solar panels and worry about the extra cost of buying green power. The Power Melbourne vision is to build a network of neighbourhood batteries around the city and unlock access to reliable renewable energy.
Wind and rooftop solar panels will charge the batteries during the day allowing renewable energy to be stored then released back into the electricity grid when it's most needed in periods of high demand. People across the city will be able to power their homes and businesses using reliable, affordable, renewable energy just by switching their electricity provider to a Power Melbourne electricity plant. We're working with our community to determine the best locations for neighbourhood batteries.
Power Melbourne will reduce our city's dependence on fossil fuel energy and speed up our transition to 100% renewables. Together we're adding a big new piece to the puzzle by providing Melbourne's communities with access to affordable, clean energy. It's great when all the pieces come together. Switch on to Power Melbourne and have your say on our City's Clean Energy Future.
[Music]
[Speaker: Lord Mayor Sally Capp] Climate change action is a top priority for the city of Melbourne. In 2019 we declared a climate and biodiversity emergency to really bring a focus to our efforts and Investments to make sure that we are mitigating and adapting to climate change.
The City of Melbourne is taking action in many ways but Power Melbourne is a lead project. [Music] It's absolutely key that Melbournians are able to access affordable renewable energy and Power Melbourne is about these neighborhood scale batteries being located across our municipality.
It's part of our big overall vision here at the City of Melbourne that we are a city that is sustainable but more than that, that we are proactive in the solutions that really drive that transition to renewable energy. For us those aspirations reflect the demand and the expectations of our community and I'm so pleased that the City of Melbourne represents a community that cares so much about the future of its city.
[Speaker: Nataly - Urban Researcher/Academic] I live in Docklands and I have a family of four people. Currently there is limited access to the green energy as an apartment resident. We basically depend on the building manager's suggestions to decide which provider to choose from. Access to the neighbourhood batteries initiative for us is very important as a family, because we'll be having opportunities to have affordable and green energy. [Music]
[Speakerr: Michael] My name's Michael we're at Little Prints, which is a printing shop in Carlton. As a printing company we've got very high-end production equipment which run very fast and at high temperatures, they demand a lot of electricity.
Being located at the bottom of an apartment building, we don't have a roof we get many calls about implementing solar panels but unfortunately we're unable to do so. Power Melbourne's neighbourhood batteries is a great initiative. It'll allow us to offset a lot of our emissions and also assist with the high energy costs we have as a small business.
[Speaker: small child] Puzzles are always easier when we do them together [Music] Switch on to Power Melbourne and have your say on our city's clean energy future.
City of Melbourne logo
Partnerships
City of Melbourne is partnering with the University of Melbourne and RMIT University to deliver Power Melbourne. Our ambition is to create a model that can be replicated across greater Melbourne and beyond.
Collectively, these organisations have expertise and capability spanning across energy markets, power systems engineering, smart grids and renewable energy, and have a track record of successful partnerships including on the Melbourne Renewable Energy Project.
We have also secured the following funding to support the project:
- The Victorian Government provided funding for a feasibility study through the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action’s Neighbourhood Battery Initiative.
- The Australian Government's Community Batteries for Household Solar Program awarded the City of Melbourne a $500k grant which will support installation of a battery at Boyd Community Hub in Southbank.
- The Library at The Dock battery is supported by a $750k grant secured from the Victorian Government.
Following a rigorous tender process, Council will partner with Origin Energy to install and operate the three batteries.
Neigbourhood batteries
A guide for councils and community groups
In 2022 and 2023, the Cities of Melbourne, Yarra and Port Phillip investigated potential principles for accelerating the deployment of neighbourhood batteries at scale. We explored their local community benefits in inner urban areas and their context in the broader national energy transition. The project was supported by the Victorian Government’s Metropolitan Partnerships.
The partnership summarised learnings in a guide to assist other councils and community groups to:
- understand neighbourhood batteries and their role locally
- decide whether neighbourhood batteries could benefit their community
- navigate a pathway to successful deployment.
Battery opportunities assessment
HIP V. HYPE were engaged by City of Melbourne to explore the potential role neighbourhood scale batteries can play and to understand how local governments can best support their deployment.
The report reviews existing research, uses interviews with several key stakeholders and analyses case studies to come up with a set of potential use cases for neighbourhood batteries in metro Melbourne. These recommendations inform the development of Council policies to guide the installation of neighbourhood batteries and the design of supporting programs.
Power Melbourne FAQs
We’re creating an ambitious battery storage and renewable energy initiative designed to accelerate our commitment to power Melbourne with 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
The project will establish a network of mid-scale batteries to provide increased access to renewable energy which will support reliability and security of the electricity grid.
It will demonstrate new commercial models which can been replicated across greater Melbourne and beyond.
To become a net-zero city, all energy users within the city require access to affordable renewable energy. It’s particularly relevant for small businesses, renters, and people living in apartments who don’t have access to on-site solar.
Our vision is for Melbourne to be the national hub for clean tech innovation and a leading market for innovative climate change solutions.
Power Melbourne will create economic benefits through investment and job creation, and opportunities for research, education, and training.
By establishing a network of batteries and making it easier for households and small businesses to access affordable renewable electricity, Power Melbourne will encourage more renewables into the system.
When batteries are coupled with rooftop solar or charged when there’s more renewable supply in the grid, they allow cheap renewable energy to be stored, and released when it’s most needed.
Batteries respond quickly to maintain the voltage and frequency of the grid in areas where there is a lot of solar. They also provide energy during periods of high demand, like on hot days when thousands of air conditioners are running at once.
In these ways, batteries help displace and replace fossil fuel generation and allow the grid to handle more distributed energy resources like solar and electric vehicles.
Following community consultation, the location of our first three batteries will be Council House, Boyd Community Hub, and Library at the Dock.
The vision for Power Melbourne is a distributed network of mid-size batteries with an overall capacity of 5 MW / 10 MWh. This would be enough to meet the needs of more than 800 households for an entire day.
Individual batteries may range from 30 kW to 1 MW capacity. The batteries will be modular, meaning multiple small batteries can be stacked together to create bigger batteries.
The physical size of each battery will depend on the choice of technology and its capacity.
As a reference, a 200 kW battery is about the size of a compact 4WD car.
The average City of Melbourne resident lives in an apartment building and the Power Melbourne initiative will primarily explore models which will provide these residents, and small businesses, with access to affordable renewable energy.
This group is currently ‘locked out’ of renewable energy options such as onsite renewable energy generation or collective Power Purchase Agreements due to property type or scale of energy use.
