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Five regional New South Wales communities have been chosen for a compact energy storage trial, with Essential Energy recently installing pole-mounted batteries across its network.

Essential Energy has partnered with Origin Energy to roll out the trial that seeks to understand how to best use batteries for communities to get the most out of their rooftop solar while supporting them through the energy transition.

Essential Energy crew installing a pole-mounted battery.

The batteries can store the excess rooftop solar generated during the day and release it when energy demand is high and solar systems are no longer generating, such as when the sun goes down.

The trial provides the opportunity for residents to locally generate, store and use renewable energy in their neighbourhood without having to invest in a home battery.

Essential Energy’s Chief Operating Officer, Luke Jenner says that seven pole-mounted batteries are being connected to the electricity grid in each community to service nearby homes.

“The benefits of localised energy storage for the community is that the energy can be stored where it's generated, adjacent to customer homes, and then it can be used by those homes in the evening without having to be transported long distances. So effectively, we can store that energy where it's generated and where it's used,” Luke says.

Rooftop solar has transformed how the electricity network is used. There is now a two-way flow of electricity to the grid; sending and receiving. The use of batteries allows Essential Energy to manage peak demand periods and voltage on our network, especially as solar generation increases. Batteries are key part of supporting customers and the network through the energy transition.

“The communities were chosen for the trial because they are locations where there is an excess of solar energy throughout the day, and we can use the batteries to store that energy and then reuse it later on.”

The Essential Energy crew after the successful installation.

The trial will see the installation of 35 batteries on power poles in five towns in regional NSW: Armidale, Port Macquarie, Dubbo, Bathurst, and Wagga Wagga.

Essential Energy will install and maintain the batteries with Origin Energy orchestrating them through its Virtual Power Plant and offering storage-as-a-service for customers, including non-Origin customers, within the trial area. The trial will be open to customers with or without solar systems.

Find out more about the Pole-Mounted Battery trial.