Program 3: Engaged Communities
RP3043: Beyond WGV:
Community Battery Storage
Beyond WGV builds on the battery storage integration and commercial/governance model research in the CRCLCL projects RP3033: Mainstreaming Low Carbon Housing - The White Gum Valley Living Laboratory, RP3009: High Performance Housing - Monitoring, Evaulating and Communicating the Journey, and RP2006: FredZED - Mainstreaming Low Carbon Housing in WA.
The new work will upscale the findings of these projects to district scale, in a redevelopment project in the City of Fremantle. District scale provides a new economic opportunity for delivering community battery storage by capturing value from reduced head works, diversified load balancing, and economies of scale. It is the ‘next stage’ that is being sought by agencies and politicians across Australia.
Program
Project leader
Prof Peter Newman, Curtin University
Project status
Complete
Project period
05/2017 to 12/2018
- Publications
- Partners
CRCLCL Project Reports
RP3043: Report: Beyond White Gum Valley Precinct Guide: The Energy Village Concept - Final Report
The ‘Beyond White Gum Valley Precincts Guide: The Energy Village Concept’ objective is to assist design teams and planning assessment officers on ‘innovative’ and achievable options for implementing a precinct distributed energy system (DES). Balance’s starting point is that the objective for the precinct’s embedded electricity system is to minimise utility grid import and reduce external dependency while increasing residents’ energy savings and incorporating community energy sharing potential.
This report takes a relatively high-level look into precinct-scale distribution energy system (DES), including energy modelling, and introducing the Energy Village concept, delivering advice and guidance.
RP3043: Beyond White Gum Valley Precinct Guide: The Energy Village Concept - Final Report (1500005 PDF)
RP3043: Report: Beyond White Gum Valley Knutsford: Integrating energy, water and built form solutions in an urban regeneration and infill precinct
This report covers the outputs and follow up work of a workshop held on 17 September 2018 at LandCorp’s offices in Perth, to explore and establish an agreed vision for the broader precinct that integrates urban design, built form typologies, energy and water initiatives for the Knutsford precinct.
Beyond White Gum Valley Knutsford: Integrating energy, water and built form solutions in an urban regeneration and infill precin (16004128 PDF)
RP3043: Report: Beyond White Gum Valley Knutsford: Integrating energy, water and built form solutions in an urban regeneration and infill precinct
This report covers the outputs and follow up work of a workshop held on 17 September 2018 at LandCorp’s offices in Perth, to explore and establish an agreed vision for the broader precinct that integrates urban design, built form typologies, energy and water initiatives for the Knutsford precinct.
Beyond White Gum Valley Knutsford: Integrating energy, water and built form solutions in an urban regeneration and infill precin (16004128 PDF)
RP3043: Report: East Village: A sustainable urbanism project by LandCorp
This report documents the innovations related to sustainable urbanism incorporated into the LandCorp WA Government land development agency) project called East Village, within the Knutsford Precinct, approximately 1.5 km east of Fremantle. The project on 1.5ha consists of 36 townhouses established within a survey strata framework, plus two adjoining apartment sites for 60 dwellings. The project represents a significant innovation in residential development in Perth, Western Australia.
The project is the result of integrated design and systems thinking with considerable attention to issues of low carbon design East Village features the latest innovations aimed at total electric living, including electric vehicle fast charging, solar panels and battery storage, provision for an electric vehicle car share scheme, waterwise homes and private and public gardens.
The project incorporates Australia’s first blockchain ready homes, with new residents participating in leading trials of this new technology providing the opportunity for residents to access 100% renewable energy. The project has been designed and modelled to deliver energy and water savings, renewable energy revenues and a range of homes with adaptable spaces for home offices.
rp3043 final report east village (5415684 PDF)
RP3043: Report: Beyond White Gum Valley Knutsford: Integrating energy, water and built form solutions in an urban regeneration and infill precinct
This report covers the outputs and follow up work of a workshop held on 17 September 2018 at LandCorp’s offices in Perth, to explore and establish an agreed vision for the broader precinct that integrates urban design, built form typologies, energy and water initiatives for the Knutsford precinct.
Beyond White Gum Valley Knutsford: Integrating energy, water and built form solutions in an urban regeneration and infill precin (16004128 PDF)
RP3043: Report: Knutsford Precinct - Renewable Energy Strategy
The Knutsford precinct includes the landholdings of LandCorp, the City of Fremantle and Western Power, as well as private owners. The development area has potential for approximately 1,000 new dwellings and more than 2,000 new residents, and is guided by the Swanbourne Street and Knutsford Street East Structure Plans.
The scope of the study reported here is as follows:
- Develop an approximate electrical energy demand for the site;
- Develop a ‘net zero carbon’ concept for the precinct, based on renewable energy sources and battery storage;
- Explore potential governance arrangements for the strategy, including the commerciality for a service provider and costs to customers; and
- Recommend an implementation pathway.
The research reported here builds on the work carried out to date by Western Power and Balance Utility Solutions for Knutsford, reflects the previous studies by AUDRC and Kinesis, and incorporates the learnings from LandCorp’s landmark renewable energy microgrid at the Peel Business Park.
Knutsford Precinct - Renewable Energy Strategy (1710268 PDF)
RP3043: Report: Beyond White Gum Valley Precincts Guide: Energy Village - Final Report
The ‘Beyond White Gum Valley Precincts Guide: Energy Village’ objective is to assist design teams and planning assessment officers on ‘innovative’ and achievable options for implementing a precinct distributed energy system (DES). Balance’s starting point is that the objective for the Precinct’s embedded electricity system is to minimise utility grid import and reduce external dependency, while increasing resident’s energy savings, and incorporating community energy sharing potential.
A precinct-scale DES can be ultimately designed as a ‘smart embedded network’ (SEN). The SEN is a grid-tied microgrid with additional ability to integrate, monitor and optimise (and potentially peer-to-peer trade) distributed energy, storage, load and demand, while maintaining interaction with the main grid.
Integrating battery energy storage with solar PV within the embedded network, either behind the customer meter (rooftop solar PV and household storage) or in front of the customer meter (embedded generation and central shared storage) means the embedded network’s community can make full use of solar electricity surpluses, before drawing from the main grid.
For greenfield and brownfield restoration developments, the precinct would benefit from being managed with a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) platform, and the network fitted (where possible) with a Distributed Energy Resources Management Systems (DERMS). This will optimise the use of on-site renewable energy assets by allowing more PV to be installed and fed in, and further reduce PV curtailment. These benefits enhance the ROI of PV and storage investments on the precinct, and we believe will in turn increase the value of - and the appeal for - the precinct.
We have introduced the concept and vison for the Precinct-scale SEN as an Energy Village. This begins with defining the concept of a ‘village’ as a community gathered in the same geographic area that share interests, infrastructures, local resources and which are often managed by specific rules.
The energy producers and consumers interconnected to the village’s SEN are considered ‘villagers’’ and the village is governed by agreed specific energy rules, The success of a village relies on achieving a workable balance of power between the villagers and the village; individual interest vs community interest. Its goal is to create and share a set of efficient, effective and affordable energy resources which benefit the individuals within the village and the village as a whole.
To ensure an effective implementation of this innovative energy network paradigm shift, the facilitating infrastructure and the rules behind the Energy Village should enable every villager to have access to reliable, and affordable energy supply which can be expanded as required to run their operations (including electric vehicle charging) and allows invest in on-site generation and inp articular renewable generation.
This report takes a relatively high-level look into precinct-scale DES, including energy modelling, and introducing the Energy Village concept, delivering advice and guidance.
Beyond White Gum Valley Precincts Guide: Energy Village - Final Report (1480249 PDF)