These guidelines were prepared by the Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program at the Australian National University (ANU). This work is funded by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) as part of the Neighbourhood Battery Initiative (NBI), launched in 2021. We developed these guidelines in consultation with practitioners and policy-makers and they are informed by research analysis and lessons learnt from battery projects that are being rolled out. The audience for these guidelines is any individual or group considering setting up or participating in a neighbourhood battery project.

The guidelines are designed in layers, to cater to a range of people at different stages in the neighbourhood battery journey. The introductory sections explain some basics about neighbourhood batteries and their uses and includes some information about trials in Australia. The next layer is a top level checklist of things to consider for people starting out on the journey. This is then followed by a high-level feasibility check.

The next layer provides more in-depth guidance into what you need to do to establish a neighbourhood battery project, including the four stages of designing your model, testing your model, implementing your model, and evaluating your model. These stages will be iterative, likely with cycles of designing and testing followed by cycles of implementing and evaluating, which then lead back to more designing and testing.

The four different sections include information on how to design a business model for your battery, the operating model for your battery (including ownership), issues around ongoing project management and governance, technical specifications for your battery and tools for evaluating the battery’s social, financial and environmental impacts.