ecoinvestor.com.au June 2015

Property

Panasonic Home Battery and Storage Trials

Panasonic has launched a Residential Storage Battery System and set up pilot projects with energy retailers ActewAGL, Snowy Hydro's Red Energy and Ergon Energy to install the battery in homes with solar power.

Once fully charged from the day's sun, Panasonic's 8 kWh lithium-ion storage battery produces a two kilowatt output for four hours. Modeling for Australia shows the system could increase self-consumption of solar generation from 30 per cent to up to 60 per cent.

The pilot projects will be implemented for customers of the three retailers who are in selected zones in ACT, NSW and Queensland and have solar-installed homes.

Panasonic Australia's managing director Paul Reid said modeling over the 10-year plus life cycle of the battery shows a significant reduction in the reliance of households on the grid during peak periods. It means access to clean solar energy during the evening peak and potentially a lower energy bill.

Battery storage will help minimize the capital investment needed on the network to manage weather events that cause peak demand issues.

For retailers, the battery storage demand response control will allow them to trial different charge/ discharge programs to evaluate the effects of distributed storage. It can provide a leveling out of costs and potential competitive advantage with customers.

The Residential Storage Battery System also has programed charge/discharge, remote control charge/discharge and an emergency backup feature. The Lithium Ion battery and the high-tech Network Adapter are in storage cabinets about the size of a two drawer filing cabinet.

The Panasonic and ActewAGL joint trial in Canberra is during the second half of 2015. Ergon will initially test the battery at its research laboratory in Cairns and follow this with field tests in residential homes.

ActewAGL chief executive, Michael Costello, said his company has been working with Panasonic for two years on how to make a trial of battery energy storage in Canberra a reality.

Paul Broad, chief executive of Snowy Hydro Ltd, said Snowy Hydro manages one of the biggest electricity storage systems and the trial will help it to understand how residential battery storage might complement the energy it generates from its dams to provide Australians with even more clean, green energy.

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