- New community battery commissioned in Harrisdale as part of Project Symphony
- Project involves over 500 customers as part of WA’s largest Virtual Power Plant
- Project Symphony will identify the customer and community benefits of a Virtual Power Plant
Energy Minister Bill Johnston today announced a key milestone for Western Australia’s innovative virtual power plant (VPP) Project Symphony pilot with the commissioning of a new community battery in Harrisdale.
The community battery is a key component of the project and it will help to manage and balance the electricity system while delivering benefits from a shared battery to customers.
The battery will soak up and store excess solar power produced from rooftop solar during the day and can discharge it at night when energy demand is high. This smooths the power flow in the area during peak times and helps to maintain power reliability for the community.
The excess energy stored in the 1.34-megawatt community battery will be orchestrated with customer owned smaller batteries as a VPP, which demonstrates the capability to create economic and environmental benefits for the community.
This is the first time a community battery of this size has been orchestrated with customer owned individual batteries in WA. Project Symphony will identify how distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar and batteries, can benefit customers participating in a future energy market.
Testing is currently underway, with more than 900 customer assets contracted to participate in the VPP. The pilot will help provide a better understanding of the practical operations of a VPP, including customer and community benefits, and help inform the ongoing transformation of the South West Interconnected System.
Project Symphony is a collaboration between Western Power, Synergy, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and Energy Policy WA.
Project Symphony has received support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) as part of ARENA’s Advancing Renewables Program.
As stated by Energy Minister Bill Johnston:
“Project Symphony’s new community battery will provide valuable insights into how we can unlock greater economic and environmental benefits for the Western Australian community as we continue to transform the energy sector on our way to net zero.
“In the face of a rapidly changing energy industry, customer’s rooftop solar systems, batteries, air conditioning and community batteries orchestrated together can play an important role in enabling the greater connection of renewables and the continued running of a secure and stable electricity system.
“Project Symphony is a major deliverable of the Government’s Distributed Energy Resources Roadmap.”
