{"id":10981,"date":"2017-05-03T06:15:52","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T19:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=10981"},"modified":"2017-05-03T07:50:48","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T21:20:48","slug":"townsville-solar-battery-trial-mb0019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/townsville-solar-battery-trial-mb0019\/","title":{"rendered":"Third Phase Of Townsville Solar + Battery Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_10982\" style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10982\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10982\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/battery-trial-townsville.jpg\" alt=\"Solar and battery trial in Townsville\" width=\"636\" height=\"444\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/battery-trial-townsville.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/battery-trial-townsville-300x209.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-10982\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">It&#8217;s a scientific fact &#8211; free batteries make people smile &#8211; Image: Ergon Energy<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A new phase of an Ergon project in Townsville is trialing new home energy management systems (HEMS) and battery storage,\u00a0solar panels &#8211; and a residential demand tariff.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->The extension of the trial and new tariff (Tariff 14) was announced by Queensland Energy Minister Mark Bailey yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cErgon 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,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/statements.qld.gov.au\/Statement\/2017\/5\/2\/townsville-innovative-battery-trial-extended\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A demand charge is an additional billing component based not on the amount of electricity consumed, but the level of peak power\u00a0drawn 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.<\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/residential-demand-tariffs-have-arrived-and-theyre-vicious\/\">residential demand tariffs<\/a> last year &#8211; and it&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We\u2019ll work with participants to keep their demand for power as low as possible in peak periods,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ergon.com.au\/about-us\/news-hub\/talking-energy\/technology\/townsville-innovative-battery-trial-extended\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a> Ergon&#8217;s Community Strategy Advisor Julie Heath.<\/p>\n<p>In Ergon&#8217;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&#8217;t clear in the company&#8217;s release.<\/p>\n<p>Stage three of Ergon\u2019s network trial will continue throughout 2017. New batteries (including a Tesla Powerwall in one instance) along with new HEMS&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>Ergon reported last year that previous stages of the trial <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ergon.com.au\/about-us\/news-hub\/talking-energy\/business\/mixed-results-for-townsville-battery-trial\">achieved mixed results<\/a>. 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&#8217;t necessarily mean a better system.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The most expensive unit provided some of the greatest challenges and the least expensive unit was the most reliable but most complex to program,&#8221; said Ergon&#8217;s Dean Condon back in August.<\/p>\n<p>On a related note, if you&#8217;re interested in learning more about specifications and pricing on dozens of home battery brands and models, check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/comparison-table\/\">comparison of solar batteries.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In other recent battery news from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/installers\/townsville\/\"> Townsville<\/a>, we reported on a proposal for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/townsville-battery-plant-mb0006\/\">massive battery plant<\/a> to be built in the city capable of producing a million units a year; a project that could also generate thousands of jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new phase of an Ergon project in Townsville is trialing new home energy management systems (HEMS) and battery storage,\u00a0solar panels &#8211; and a residential demand tariff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-solar-battery-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Third Phase Of Townsville Solar + Battery Trial - SolarQuotes Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An Ergon project in Townsville is trialing new home energy management systems and battery storage, solar panels - and a residential demand tariff.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/townsville-solar-battery-trial-mb0019\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Third Phase Of Townsville Solar + Battery Trial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An Ergon project in Townsville is trialing new home energy management systems and battery storage, solar panels - and a residential demand tariff.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/townsville-solar-battery-trial-mb0019\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolarQuotes Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-02T19:45:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-02T21:20:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/battery-trial-townsville.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Bloch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/townsville-solar-battery-trial-mb0019\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/townsville-solar-battery-trial-mb0019\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Bloch\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66afd571aa00c2e442f0192ebac2f6f1\"},\"headline\":\"Third Phase Of Townsville Solar + Battery Trial\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-02T19:45:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-02T21:20:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/townsville-solar-battery-trial-mb0019\/\"},\"wordCount\":520,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/townsville-solar-battery-trial-mb0019\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/battery-trial-townsville.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"General Solar &amp; 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The system will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tesla Powerpack battery project - Queensland","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/queensland-community-battery.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/queensland-community-battery.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/queensland-community-battery.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/queensland-community-battery.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/queensland-community-battery.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51167,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/kleinton-battery-storage-mb2037\/","url_meta":{"origin":10981,"position":1},"title":"Kleinton Battery Storage Project Application Lodged","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"June 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"An application has been lodged for a battery energy storage facility to be constructed at a site around 13 kilometres north of the Queensland city of Toowoomba. The project is part of an Energy Queensland trial involving the installation of 40MWh of battery storage. The trial, announced by the Palaszczuk\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kleinton Battery Energy Storage System - Toowoomba Shire","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/battery-storage-toowoomba.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/battery-storage-toowoomba.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/battery-storage-toowoomba.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/battery-storage-toowoomba.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/battery-storage-toowoomba.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":49859,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/compare-regional-qld-electricity\/","url_meta":{"origin":10981,"position":2},"title":"Regional Queensland Has Electricity Retailer Choice. But Which Is Cheapest?","author":"Ronald Brakels","date":"May 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Do you live in regional Queensland? \u00a0Do you think your only choice of electricity retailer is Ergon Energy? Then I have exciting news for you. \u00a0You can choose who bills you for electricity. This is not a new thing.\u00a0 But many people aren't aware of it.\u00a0 Until recently, this included\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Electricity Prices&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Electricity Prices","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/electricity-prices\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/qld-retailer-choice.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/qld-retailer-choice.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/qld-retailer-choice.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/qld-retailer-choice.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/qld-retailer-choice.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":32351,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/gst-ergon-feed-in-tariff\/","url_meta":{"origin":10981,"position":3},"title":"Is GST Included On Ergon Feed-In Tariffs? It Depends Who You Ask","author":"Richard Chirgwin","date":"August 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This post arises because of a query from a Queensland Ergon customer, who has discovered the solar feed-in tariff set by the state\u2019s competition regulator doesn\u2019t make provision for GST. This doesn\u2019t matter to residential customers - they\u2019re not expected to account for GST on the electricity they sell back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Solar Policy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Solar Policy","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-policy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ergon-gst.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ergon-gst.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ergon-gst.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ergon-gst.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ergon-gst.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8298,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tariff31-33\/","url_meta":{"origin":10981,"position":4},"title":"Energex Tries To Stop Tide Of Batteries With Bonkers Tariff 31 and 33 Rule","author":"Ronald Brakels","date":"November 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Energex is the state government owned network operator for all of Queensland.\u00a0 They receive electricity from the high voltage transmission lines that Powerlink manages and distribute it to the state's homes and businesses. They also kindly distribute it things that aren't homes or business, including my cousin's non-profit Fight Club\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Battery Storage&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Battery Storage","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/battery-storage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"king energex on a throne","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Energex_King.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Energex_King.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Energex_King.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44552,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/ergon-ev-charging-plan\/","url_meta":{"origin":10981,"position":5},"title":"Ergon Readies Plan To Teach EV Owners How To Play Nice With The Grid","author":"Richard Chirgwin","date":"November 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve heard lots of predictions about electric vehicles\u2019 role as storage in a renewable energy future. But it\u2019s never before occurred to me that networks might encourage EV owners of the future to fill up their cars at a charging station during the daytime, specifically so they can use that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Electric Vehicles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Electric Vehicles","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/electric-vehicles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Charging electric vehicles and the impact on the mains grid","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/play-nice-charger.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/play-nice-charger.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/play-nice-charger.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/play-nice-charger.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/play-nice-charger.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10981"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10986,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10981\/revisions\/10986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}