Neighbourhood battery prioritisation framework: Manningham council

Case study: A smart approach to sustainable energy solutions for a brighter future

Manningham Council engaged Wave Consulting Australia to create a prioritisation framework to help them to select appropriate sites for neighbourhood batteries on public land within the local government area.

Neighbourhood battery prioritisation framework
Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung lands, Melbourne

Key facts

Neighbourhood batteries are typically between 100 kWh and 500 kWh in storage capacity

~1000 potential sites for a battery

The problem

Manningham City Council owns nearly 1000 separate parcels of land that may suit a neighbourhood battery. With so many potential options, a prioritisation framework was required to determine if any of the individual parcels of land was suitable for a battery.

Council also required further analysis and decision support to determine appropriate sites for a neighbourhood battery.

The solution

Three staged approach

The project was completed over three primary stages:

Council engagement and identifying criteria: Council staff were surveyed and a workshop held to discuss possible site selection criteria.
Developing criteria and case studies: Criteria were further defined based on relevance to council’s objectives for battery installation. Case studies were also developed to show how the prioritisation framework can be used and can be applied to specific sites to illustrate how the criteria and data requirements change with a different objective.
Final summary report: Outcomes of stage one and two were collated into a single summary report.

The method was particularly focused on engaging and encouraging all of the stakeholders within Council to provide input to the benefits, opportunities, and strategic implications of the role of neighbourhood batteries in Manningham.

Selection criteria developed for the prioritisation of neighbourhood batteries

Network criteria:
- network constraints
- solar penetration
- transformer capacity
- diurnal demand profile
- network connection proximity
Community/social criteria:
- community support
- residential customers
- visual profile
- emergency centre
- residential proximity.
Land and planning:
- land ownership
- overlay (flooding)
- physical space & layout
- overlay (heritage)
- maintenance access
- overlay (bushfire)
- future issues
- overlay (sea level rise).
Financial:
- financial feasibility
- grant funding
- revenue streams.

The outcome

A comprehensive and easy-to-use framework that considered nearly 20 factors was developed by Wave Consulting for Manningham City Council. The framework also included guidance for council on how it can be used effectively to determine which criteria should be considered when selecting sites for neighbourhood batteries.

Two case studies were also completed to illustrate how this framework will work in practice and influence the degree to which council should push for funding and design work.