{"id":69781,"date":"2023-01-10T06:46:14","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T20:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=69781"},"modified":"2023-01-10T06:46:14","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T20:16:14","slug":"batteries-vicinity-centres-mb2785","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/batteries-vicinity-centres-mb2785\/","title":{"rendered":"Vicinity Powering Up Battery Storage Pilot For Shopping Centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vicinity<\/p>\n

Building on its substantial shopping centre solar power street cred, work has commenced on the first onsite battery storage systems for Vicinity Centres.<\/p>\n

Under a joint venture agreement with Enel X, two of Vicinity\u2019s 32 centres across the country are having batteries installed under a pilot program – one at Broadmeadows Central in Victoria, and the other at Lake Haven Centre in New South Wales. To have a combined capacity of more than 5 MWh, both installations are due for completion by mid-2023.<\/p>\n

“The commercial collaboration with Enel X will help drive our Integrated Energy Strategy by delivering energy storage systems to our centres that complement our existing solar power installations,” said Vicinity Centres’ Justin Mills.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The batteries will store surplus renewable energy when wholesale spot electricity prices are low or negative and discharge during peak periods when prices are high.<\/p>\n

“These projects will help Vicinity reduce costs by optimising the batteries\u2019 charge and discharge strategy with our proprietary optimisation software DER.OS,” said<\/a> Matt Schultz, Enel X Australia’s Head of Energy Storage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr. Schultz said Virtual Power Plant (VPP)<\/a> integration will also introduce new revenue streams for Vicinity, such as frequency support (FCAS3) services.<\/p>\n

Assuming the pilot is successful, there’s plenty of potential for more batteries to be installed – more than 50MWh of storage. That’s equivalent to around 3,700 Tesla Powerwall home batteries.<\/p>\n

Vicinity Centres A Solar Powerhouse<\/h2>\n

Vicinity has taken commercial solar<\/a> to a new level.<\/p>\n

In FY18, the company committed to a $73 million investment in on-site solar energy generation. In addition to cutting electricity costs, the solar rollout is also playing a big part in helping Vicinity Centres meet its Net Zero Carbon1<\/a><\/sup> by 2030 target; announced in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first solar panels were installed at Castle Plaza in Adelaide in December 2018. Since that time and up until the end of last financial year, Vicinity has installed more than 32.85 MW capacity across 22 centres. In the last financial year there were installations at Chadstone, VIC (1.55 MW), The Glen, VIC (0.92 MW) and Nepean Village, NSW (0.78 MW). And there may have been more since.<\/p>\n

Output from all its solar systems since the rollout began (Source: Vicinity Centres 2022 Sustainability Report<\/a>):<\/p>\n