Third Phase Of Townsville Solar + Battery Trial

It’s a scientific fact – free batteries make people smile – Image: Ergon Energy

A new phase of an Ergon project in Townsville is trialing new home energy management systems (HEMS) and battery storage, solar panels – and a residential demand tariff.

The extension of the trial and new tariff (Tariff 14) was announced by Queensland Energy Minister Mark Bailey yesterday.

“Ergon believes this demand tariff together with the combination of the new batteries, solar and HEMS will give customers better price signals to take action and control their demand, avoid high cost impacts and therefore high bills,” he said.

A demand charge is an additional billing component based not on the amount of electricity consumed, but the level of peak power drawn from the grid during a given period. That peak can form the basis of the demand charge not just for that day or week, but for a month or even longer.

Businesses have been subject to demand charges for years and residential demand tariffs first started appearing in Australia in 2016. SQ blogger Ronald wrote about the financial risks associated with residential demand tariffs last year – and it’s well worth a read. Households on demand tariffs (and particularly those without batteries) really need to be on the ball with how they use energy.

In addition to all the hi-tech gadgetry provided to trial participants, it seems Ergon will also be lending these folks an additional helping hand.

“We’ll work with participants to keep their demand for power as low as possible in peak periods,” said Ergon’s Community Strategy Advisor Julie Heath.

In Ergon’s trial, the Tariff 14 demand charge is based on the average of the four top demand days in the month, with a higher rate for the three summer months. What the rates are weren’t clear in the company’s release.

Stage three of Ergon’s network trial will continue throughout 2017. New batteries (including a Tesla Powerwall in one instance) along with new HEMS’s have been installed in the nine homes participating; both of which are connected to the solar power systems installed in previous trial stages of the trial.

Ergon reported last year that previous stages of the trial achieved mixed results. An interesting aspect was the company noted a significant difference in the quality and functionality of the batteries installed at the time. Pricier units didn’t necessarily mean a better system.

“The most expensive unit provided some of the greatest challenges and the least expensive unit was the most reliable but most complex to program,” said Ergon’s Dean Condon back in August.

On a related note, if you’re interested in learning more about specifications and pricing on dozens of home battery brands and models, check out our comparison of solar batteries.

In other recent battery news from Townsville, we reported on a proposal for a massive battery plant to be built in the city capable of producing a million units a year; a project that could also generate thousands of jobs.