If you could … would you?

If you could contribute to the energy transition by doing more than installing solar and/or home batteries, and participate even if you don’t have either, would you? If you could link with other members of the community with whom you share an electricity sub-network, and increase the percentage of renewables your zone uses, would that appeal to you?

That is exactly what is happening in a neighbourhood just to our south: the Alphington – Fairfield, and small part of Ivanhoe sub-network zone, which is served by the Station Street Fairfield electricity substation. 100 households are coming together comprising owners and renters, solar and non-solar homes, home battery and non-home battery homes, to collectively drive down the use of fossil fuels and drive up the degree of renewables in that zone. 

This is happening in 2 ways.

Firstly, the newly launched Alphington Community Battery* will absorb excess solar generation from roof tops during the day and release it back into the grid in the evening for local consumption. This will mean that when demand is high in the evening instead of coming from fossil-fuelled generators far away, energy will be coming from solar rooftops in the Aphington- Fairfield area. This energy will have been generated and stored in the battery during the day. As this sub-zone is in a ‘constrained’ area which means the distributor (Jemena) cannot ‘accept’ all the solar generated, much of what is being stored would have gone to waste.

Secondly, Village Power, a volunteer group of local residents, which has just launched the battery, is running a pilot program, the Community Energy Program, which is bringing together 100 households to learn how they can contribute to better using locally generated energy from renewable sources to address climate change in their own homes and take action at a community level. This involves shifting energy use to the middle of the day (even if they are not home), learning to read their energy bills, and workshops to explain the many facets of the energy system.

Village Power is working on providing these households with personalised seasonal reports on their energy use and community seasonal reports, both of which will show the amount of renewables used as a percentage of total use. The aim is to be able to set a goal for the reduction of fossil fuels in the grid in the local energy zone by generating, storing and consuming renewable energy locally. 

Village Power is producing a replicable model that will allow other communities to follow in their footsteps so that they too can take charge of their energy future.

For further information on the Community Energy Program:

https://www.villagepower.com.au/resources

Written by Robin Gale-Baker

* Situated outside the Melbourne Farmers’ Market (often referred to as the Alphington Farmers’ Market) at 2 Wingrove Street, Alphington, opposite Alphington train station.