Residential customers that live near the North Epping Shared Community Battery will now have access to an energy retail plan that allows multiple eligible customers to access a shared community battery. This is called Energy Storage as a Service (ESaaS) and could save some customers more than $200 per year.

This approach can deliver cost savings for consumers, improve grid reliability, facilitate greater integration of renewable energy and support home electrification.

ESaaS will be offered by energy retailers partnering with Ausgrid under an innovative trial tariff and is made available to residential customers that live near an eligible community battery.

For more information review the Fact Sheet or Ausgrid’s website.

On Saturday 18 May, Ausgrid officially switched on the North Epping Community Battery at North Epping Oval.

This is the third community battery installed by Ausgrid under the Federal Government’s Community Batteries for Household Solar Program. Community batteries support local power supply quality and voltage by harnessing and storing excess solar from homes, taking advantage of our existing network infrastructure and reducing the need for expensive network augmentation. The creation of distributed energy storage for local renewables is an important step in achieving our Net Zero community target by 2050.

The proposed EV Charger will not be going ahead due to community opposition.

Artwork by local first nations artist Leanne “Mulgo” Watson Redpath, titled Garad Flying.

Ausgrid is preparing to install the new community battery on Beck St at North Epping Oval. See the image on the right hand side of this page for the location.

The work is planned to commence on Thursday, 26 March 2024.

The electrical vehicle (EV) charger will not be included as part of this work.

Following the community consultation which closed on 19 January 2024, Ausgrid have released a Community Update (February 2024) on the project here: Ausgrid| North Epping Community Battery

Between 19 April and 19 May 2023, Ausgrid and Hornsby Shire Council consulted the community on the proposed location, artwork and online information hub for the community battery.

In total, 34 responses were received through email, survey and at an onsite community event on 27 April, 2023. We heard from the community:

• 99% supported the location in North Epping Oval
• Community members were excited about a First Nation artwork and suggested incorporating local birdlife and the local community.
• Key areas of interest were local solar consumption, solar hosting capacity, solar exporting, voltage regulation, solar feed-in, number of households supported by the battery and electric vehicle charging.

• Community members also asked about safety, noise, retail offers and size.

View the Community Engagement Report - February 2024

Following that consultation, Ausgrid identified a new position for the community battery and EV charging Station at North Epping Oval.

Ausgrid is proposing to reposition the community battery as shown in the image on the right hand side. This will allow the battery to be set away from the intersection and minimise construction impacts on the local community.

Ausgrid is exploring new ways to share the value from community batteries with local communities. Community batteries provide additional network capacity to support more connections, such as rooftop solar and electric vehicle charging stations.

Ausgrid is proposing to install a pole-mounted 22kW public electric vehicle charging station co-located with the North Epping community battery. See image on the right hand side.

Key points about the EV Charging Station:

• The EV charging station will be a power pole-mounted 22kW charger with a Type 2 socketed connector.
• EV owners will be required to bring their own cable to charge.
• To charge, customers can use a mobile app or QR code.
• The EV charging station will be accessible to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days per week
• 1 x kerbside parking space is proposed to be converted to 3P 8:00am-8:00pm ‘EV only – while charging’ for electric vehicles.

Ausgrid welcomes community feedback on the proposed EV charging station location and battery position from 8 December 2023 to 19 January 2024.

Share your feedback or ask questions by contacting Ausgrid’s Community Battery Team on 1800 995 674 or sharedbattery@ausgrid.com.au.

Ausgrid, in partnership with Hornsby Shire Council, has applied for a Federal Government Community Battery grant for a proposed location in North Epping. Ausgrid is seeking community feedback to inform the community battery project.

The Federal Government has announced funding to install up to 400 community batteries across Australia, including specific locations for their initial funding round. Ausgrid has applied to deliver a community battery in North Epping, one of the six eligible locations in Ausgrid’s network area. Ausgrid is excited about the potential to work closely with the Federal Government and local communities to deliver these additional community batteries should they be successful in securing government funding.

Community batteries could store locally generated energy and then make this renewable energy available when it is needed.