Energy infrastructure company Jemena has switched on its fourth community battery in Melbourne’s north-west, helping more homes and businesses access locally generated renewable energy.
The new battery at Pitcher Park in Alphington joins community batteries in Bellfield, Coburg and Flemington, which were installed in 2025. The projects are supported by the Australian Government’s Community Batteries for Household Solar program.
Jemena General Manager Customer and Commercial, Sandra Centofanti, said community batteries would play an important role in supporting the increasing uptake of rooftop solar while maintaining network reliability.
“Over the next ten years the number of our electricity customers with rooftop solar is set to double from 19 per cent to around 40 per cent. Installing community batteries in areas with a high uptake of rooftop solar is one of the ways we are preparing our network for the future,” Centofanti said.
Origin Energy is Jemena’s retail partner for the four community batteries and manages them through its virtual power plant. This allows the batteries to charge when renewable energy is abundant and discharge during periods of peak demand to support the grid.
Homes and businesses connected to the same low-voltage network as the community batteries can access the stored energy through their existing electricity supply without needing to change retailers.
Each battery has around 400kWh of storage capacity, equivalent to the amount of energy used by around 165 homes over two hours during the evening peak.
Jemena selected the battery locations based on factors including local electricity network constraints, safety considerations, environmental impacts and projected growth in rooftop solar. The locations were determined in consultation with local councils, with residents and community groups also contributing feedback on the batteries’ design and placement.
The community batteries form part of a broader program of works designed to increase the amount of rooftop solar energy that can be exported back into Jemena’s electricity network.
“The amount of solar energy that can be exported back into the grid within our electricity network has grown by more than 90 per cent from levels seen in 2020,” Centofanti said.
“This was achieved through an optimisation program aimed at ensuring the network is equipped to host additional solar energy with no impact to the power supply customers rely on each day.”
