Brimbank council has announced its first community battery will be built in Sunshine West.
According to council, the 500 kilowatt-hour battery will be built in Gresham Way Reserve, and will be able to provide enough power for dozens of houses for several hours during peak periods.
The battery will be connected to the local power network owned by the energy distributor Powercor.
Council said community batteries help make the power network more resilient by soaking up excess local rooftop solar power that can’t be stored in individual household batteries during the day, and feed the power back to the grid when the electricity demand is high.
As a result, community batteries provide network support and can help reduce power surges.
Other benefits of community batteries include reducing pressure on the electricity grid, helping more homes benefit from solar energy, and lowering emissions, according to council.
The community battery will be the size of a small car and will be decorated with artwork created by an artist in consultation with the community.
Building is expected to start this month and finish in December.
Council received funding for the community battery project from the federal government’s community batteries for household solar program.
The federal program will install 400 batteries to provide shared power storage for households across Australia.
