September 2024
The National CSBWG Monthly Forum and the ANU Future of Neighbourhood Batteries Conference have grown in size and impact. Both events have seen significant development over the past 3 years. These forums have proven to be effective platforms for fostering dialogue on various aspects of community and neighbourhood batteries, including ownership models, tariffs, regulation, and community participation.
This has been a highly successful space where discussion has been open, respectful, and productive. The forum draws a diverse set of stakeholders and policymakers including industry, community, regulatory bodies, government, and academia. Attendance at the monthly forum has quadrupled, now regularly drawing over 50 participants. Targeted discussions from these forums have significantly influenced the development and planning of government-funded neighbourhood battery trials.
The CSBWG seeks to ensure neighbourhood batteries improve our energy system by:
1. allowing all neighbourhood battery stakeholders to be as informed and involved as possible, particularly those who might otherwise be left out of this opportunity e.g. councils and community groups and,
2. generating targeted recommendations for decision makers to inform the implementation of neighbourhood batteries in the best interests of Australian consumers.
The working group function and topics are governed by a steering group with members from Ausgrid (Alida Jansen Van Vuuren), DEECA (Laura Lynch), Yarra Energy Foundation (Chris Wallin), Total Environment Centre (Mark Byrne) and the ANU (Marnie Shaw).
ANU hosts and chairs the steering group. Until January 2023, funding from Victorian Government DEECA’s first round of the Neighbourhood Battery Initiative (NBI) supported ANU’s hosting and organising of the meeting. The continuation of the CSBWG monthly forum is now supported by Energy Consumers Australia (ECA) as part of the April 2023-24 ‘Keeping the community in community batteries’ grant.
The CSBWG knowledge sharing forum is currently providing significant support for the roll-out of neighbourhood battery projects and government programs. Our neighbourhood battery research at BSGIP also both directly informs and is directly informed by this national forum. Outcomes of the CSBWG to date include a report, written by ANU, for the February 2023 discussion with the AER about their new ring-fencing class waiver.
When is the monthly national forum?
The monthly forum occurs virtually on the first Tuesday of each month from 3-4:30pm.
How do I catch up on previous working group discussions?
Meeting minutes from previous working group discussions can be accessed below:
Want to join the working group?
If you would like to join the monthly Community-Scale Battery Working Group (CSBWG) national forum, please express interest to Marnie.Shaw@anu.edu.au.