100 Neighbourhood Batteries Program information session transcript
Recorded Tuesday 29 July, 11am.
Kate Clark (DEECA) 0:11
Hello everyone, good morning. Just want to let everyone know that this session will be recorded and the video will be made available on DEECA’s neighbourhood battery website later this week. So if you have any questions throughout, please ask them using the Teams Q&A function.
And we will address as many of your questions as possible at the end of the presentation. And any questions that we can't answer, we will answer in the FAQ next week.
So before I kick off, I'm going to say Wominyaka and acknowledge the traditional owners of the land that I'm joining you from, which is the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung of the Kulin Nation, and pay my respects to the elders past and present. I'd also like to extend that acknowledgement and respect to the traditional owners of the lands in which you're dialling in from today.
So thank you very much for coming along today. I'm Kate Clark. I'm the 100 NB program manager and together with my colleague Campbell Fox, who is the Senior Project Officer, you'll see him in a bit, uh, we'll spend the next 20 to 30 minutes telling you about the 100 NB program, how to apply and how applications will be assessed.
Then we'll take time to answer your questions. So as I said, please submit a question anytime via the Q&A box on the right side of your screen. Uh, if there are any questions that we don't have time to answer or we might need to seek further details, we will answer them in the FAQ. So do keep an eye on that.
We update it a couple of times during the application period.
So as you may be aware, in November, uh, 2022, the Labour government committed to fund 100 Neighbourhood batteries across Victoria. And very creatively we have named that program the 100 Neighbourhood Batteries Program. So as you'll see on your screen, the program seeks to fund projects that meet some or ideally all of the program objectives, um, which include things like increased energy reliability, increased resilience, Uh, and passing on the many benefits that neighbourhood batteries can show to consumers.
So this is the third round. Under round one, we awarded Just over 6 million in grants and that funded 6 projects that are delivering twenty-five batteries. Under round two, uh, we awarded, the Victorian Government awarded approximately 12 million in grants and that funded 20 projects and they are going to be delivering sixty-five batteries. So if your maths is good, that's up to 90 batteries, but we're not stopping there. Under round three, we have another 6.63 million available and that should take us well beyond that 100 neighbourhood batteries.
So if you want to know what we funded under rounds one and two, um, I won't go through all the details here cause there's 90 projects, well there's 90 batteries. Um. So the best thing to do is head along to the neighbourhood Batteries website. You can see the address on the screen there.
And if you scroll to the bottom of that page, you'll see round one projects divided into the streams that were funded and round two projects similarly. And that example there on the right of the Monash Operations Centre, that's what the sort of information that you'll find in there when you click through. So for each of the projects we're detailing where they are, the number of batteries, who's running the project, and Just a little bit about what it's seeking to do.
Okay, so round three, hopefully you've had a look at the application guidelines that are available on our website, but I'll take you through what some of the key differences are between this round and previous rounds. It is very similar.
So we are offering up to $400,000 per battery, per project, and these projects must be completed by the thirty-first of August 2027. So Um, we expect the minister Will announce successful Uh applications probably January, February, March next year, depending on her timing. So it's allowing approximately 18 months to actually deliver the project.
So of these things here, you'll note that, um, we've specified stationary batteries, so that's Just to avoid any confusion that, applying for an EV is not eligible under this program. It does need to be a battery or a backup system that stays put, and each of those energy backup systems can include or must include a neighbourhood battery, but we can also fund under that third stream, the delivering energy resilience, we can also fund the installation of additional solar PV or a generator or management systems. So it is for the full backup system, not just the neighbourhood battery for that Stream 3. And uh, if you're trying to work out, uh, how much you could have, it is still $400,000 per battery for that management for the energy backup system. So if your battery is maybe $250,000 and um, then you could spend an extra 75,000 towards the solar and a generator, bringing it up to that 400,000 um per battery for the entire project.
Um, also worth noting for that stream three for you to be considered, you do need to demonstrate, um, a need for improved resilience. Uh, because that that stream three is all about energy resilience, so, we do ask, and we Will talk about this a bit more later on that, um, the outages that you're citing there, the need for the resilience should be specific to the battery location. Uh, because it is about making sure that battery is keeping maybe a neighbourhood house or something like that powered up during an outage.
So if you have outages in the north of your suburb or town, but this this um centre is where that you want to back up is in the south, it wouldn't be really eligible for stream 3 because in the South you're not getting the outages, so there's no need for a battery. But if it was located in the north where you do tend to get outages, then that would be the perfect location for it.
So if you've got any queries about that, do Just contact us via the Neighbourhood Batteries e-mail address and we will show you that towards the end of the presentation. Um, but uh, in terms of what evidence we want, um, we're really looking forward we're really looking for evidence of um, whatever you've got in terms, it could be newspaper cuttings, it could be anything that shows we have had outages here. Just send it through as part of your application. So we'll go into that in in more detail about the Co contributions with slide 15 because you'll see there it's marked as not applicable. That is quite a large change. So I Will now pass over to Campbell.
Campbell J Fox (DEECA) 7:21
Thanks, Kate, and hello everyone. It's really nice to see a lot of very familiar names and a lot of new names as well. So I will just very quickly go through the eligibility requirements. I know that it's quite dull, but it's also obviously critically important that you are able to meet these requirements.
It's a real shame when we have to not progress application through to assessment on the back of something that can often be quite small. We will try and work through little things as best we can, but we do recommend that you really take the time to familiarize yourself with the requirements.
So I'll just quickly run through the eligible applicant requirements. So it's on the screen, but you must be either a commercial business, a not-for-profit organisation, a cooperative, or a local government authority. One that we often get is people applying as trusts who obviously are unable to enter into an agreement. So just being mindful of your organization type and how you're registered with the ATO. So uh, we will undertake an ABN look up and that's kind of the last point on this side on this slide, but also just making sure that your name and your ABN that you've put in your application that they match with the name and the ABN of who you've applied with and also who you have registered with the ATO with just so that everything is matching. Uh, it becomes really important, particularly later on when it comes to contracting. Um. So I'm sorry, everyone hit the wrong button there. Um. So yeah, you must be an incorporated body, a Co-op or an association.
And we also need to see evidence of being financially solvent. So the application portal asks for three years of records. That can be two if you're an organization that does financial reporting, that can be two reports because that will cover a three-year period. Um, yeah. Just making sure that all of that's there, we are able to clarify and come back and ask for it. But obviously that being selfish, that's obviously a different burden on us when it comes to that assessment period. So if you're able to just take the time to check through those things, it'll be easier for yourselves and us. Um, the project eligibility, I'm not gonna go into here. It differs a little bit between slides, uh, between streams. But um, again, just making sure that you've proposed a battery that's big enough, that's the right, um, chemistry that and we're not, we are chemistry agnostic, but making sure that it is a, um, a chemical battery and just little things like that. Just take the time to double check these things.
I'll now very quickly cover off on the merit criteria. So this shows the four separate criteria buckets that applications will be scored against and the weighting for each of those criteria.
So criteria one, which is 30% focus focuses on the intended outcome. So we're looking at how does the project you're proposing align with our intended outcomes? For example, like will it increase energy reliability? So to Kate's example before, like is this site needing reliability? Will it increase the reliability by having a battery there? How are the benefits from your battery be passed on to your community or your consumers?
So it might be to what extent are you lowering household bills or whatever, whatever the benefit is that you're seeking to provide, but the extent to which that happens, as well as your ability to quantify that. So just saying that it will do that, that it'll lower bills you know that might get you the lowest mark, but if you wanna uh score higher than of course being able to quantify that and and show us I guess your homework and where you've got those figures from is really helpful there.
Um criteria 2 is looking at the your capability and capacity. So it's looking at who are you working with? Like, is it who are your partners? Or if it's your team, who's in the team? What's their experience? What are their roles and responsibilities? Have you thought about these things, I suppose, about everyone that's involved or needs to be involved?
Another thing is often DNSP support. So if you're particularly if you're applying through Stream One, are you, do you have DNSP support to show that you're going to be getting network payments if that's something that you're pursuing? So yeah, that one's really looking at you as an applicant and your team.
Criteria 3 focuses on what the project will deliver, but also the overall quality of the application and all the supporting documentation that you provided. So take into consideration all sorts of things, the clarity of the project design, the proposed deliverables, the proposed milestones. Have you thought about the logical flow? Have you I guess done your homework and worked out how this will happen. For many projects it's quite straightforward, but for others we expect to see the supporting documents match the complexity of the project. So if it's a super high-risk project then it should be a comprehensive risk register, just matching things up to what kind of makes sense on that basis and then the criteria 4 focuses on the lifetime value of the proposed battery. So looking at your modelling essentially and again it doesn't have to be overly complex for relatively simple installations, but looking at your expected costs, revenue over the battery, the cost per kWh. So how much is the funding, how much of funding is being asked and how much money is it costing you to purchase the batteries?
For stream three, we ask and there is a FAQ on our website that I would recommend you go and have a look at around how to calculate that for, um, an energy resilience or an energy backup system, because obviously there's often multiple components which can affect how you, um, complete those sums. So looking at, um, we ask basically just apply it all to the energy backup system. But yeah, please have a look at our FAQs which is on our website.
I'll now just quickly go through what network and community benefits mean for us or generally the definition of network benefits is, pardon me, is battery regulation or voltage management or mitigating minimum or peak demand issues, increasing reliability, reducing potential costs of the network upgrades, obviously quite technical and generally the applicants we see and expect to see are more in that technical space. Community benefits on the other hand varies entirely on based on the like on what you your community wants and needs, and so we don't necessarily define what we expect to see here. I'll run through a couple of examples shortly, and you can also have a look at our website for examples of the types of community benefits, but for us it's about providing a net benefit to your community that's based on your community's wants and needs.
So for example, installing a battery on a community building that reduces the cost of that building, that's not a net benefit to the community, that is a benefit to whoever owns or pays the bills for that building. However, if the applicant is able to show that those costs flow back, that those cost savings flow back into the into the community, then that is a that is a net benefit. So for example, it might be reduced fees or increased services to your community on the back of the cost savings that you're going to achieve. So if you're achieving $1000 cost saving one year, you might then put that into lowering memberships for sporting teams or covering bills for other groups or providing additional services to your community, depending on who you are and what your community values. The last thing I'll call out here is just the installation of a neighbourhood battery on a private commercial benefit on a private commercial premise rather could be eligible for grant funding in this community stream. However, we need to see an operational model that would deliver a net benefit to the community. So for example, if it's a private organization, private company, they might use the profits from the battery operation. So again, if they're modelled to save $1000, then they might use that to subsidize the energy costs for a local community service organiSation or someone in their community. So it's about again providing that net benefit and passing it on.
So an example from each stream. So stream one, we've so far only funded the one application, which was Ausnet's Poll Top Battery project. They're installing 10 polltop and you can see one there. That's not one of the Ausnet ones, but just as an example of what they look like.
They are essentially an alternative solution to network augmentation. So rather than changing the poles and wires or upgrading them, they can put a battery in here. Obviously that's really only applicable to DNSB's. However we can we certainly are able to and hope to see applications from other groups in this space.
So for example, um, like commercial energy groups who are able to, I guess, play in this space a little bit more easily, but also large energy users. Um. So for example, if there's a um, a large energy user in a remote area that uses a lot of large spikes in energy and potentially, you know, you might have Regular brownouts or issues associated with that large supply, then if your battery could soften that demand and provide better reliability for the network, then um, that would be viewed as a network benefit. We do encourage and that's quite a niche area, but if applicants are looking at that, we would encourage you to contact your DNSP, DNSP rather, and explore this and make sure that the battery you're looking to propose to install would achieve those benefits.
An example of a community benefits project is the Rotary House Warrnambool project. And again, these are all on our website if you want to read a little summary on what we funded so far, but Southwest Healthcare or a not-for-profit will install an islandable battery on their uh Rotary House in Warrnambool, which is an emergency accommodation facility for people at the nearby hospitals, and those savings that they achieved through the use of the battery will then be reinvested into ancillary services that they provide as a not-for-profit. Now you don't need to be a not-for-profit by any means to apply through this stream. It's just one of the examples. But other examples are on the website and it could be things like reducing household energy bills, particularly if you've got lower income or vulnerable residents in your area and is generally achieved through behind the meter batteries.
Then finally, we've got Stream 3, which is designed for communities that experience frequent or prolonged outages, and so energy resilience is what they're aiming to target. So Venus Bay is a quite a remote part of the network, and they're proposing or that they have been funded rather to install a backup system on the Venus Bay Community Centre, which will operate as a emergency support site during outages and when it's not when outages aren't experienced, then it'll be operated to make and save money for the residents of the area and so yeah, we find that stream two is more appropriate for your community resilience. So if you were looking at things like heat refuge at a local library or those sort of alternative resilience opportunities, then that's more your stream two. But stream three is very much looking at that energy resilience and as Kate said before, think about the actual site that you're proposing, like does this site, like does this hall, whatever this building is, does it experience frequent outages? You know, you'll know if that's the case, and then that's the right sort of location to be proposing these systems.
So I'll now pass back to Kate, who's going to go through some of the funding priorities.
Kate Clark (DEECA) 19:26
Someone was always going to do it and it was me. Okay, I'm off mute now. Sorry. Um, I will give you a second to have a look at these stream one and two funding priorities on the screen. Um, they are obviously all listed in the application guidelines, but I'm not going to read through them all.
The thing to note here is that we are committing to prioritising 9 local government areas. Now 29 were identified at the beginning of the program in the election commitment.
Uh, twenty of those have received funding for projects, so the remaining 9 local government areas are Campaspe, Casey, Maston Ranges, Maribyrnong, Moira, Moonee Valley, Wellington, Whittlesea and Wyndham.
So, um, this doesn't mean that if you're not in one of those LGAs that you if, yeah, if you're not in one of those LGAs, you are still eligible. We are giving a slight priority to these LGAs because um of the way the program is designed, but these LGAs still need to apply and it must be a good quality application. It's not automatically granted a battery funding, so um, all applications will be assessed on merit. So we really encourage anyone within those LGAs to put in an application, but equally we want to encourage anyone not within those LGAs to put an application too.
So you'll note there that those benefits, those funding priorities are pretty consistent from the previous years.
So those are the streams one and two. Stream 3, which is that energy resilience stream is a little bit different.
Um, so still, uh, the same priority for those 9 local government areas. But you'll note that we've also added in there, um, that we're just seeking identification of alignment with local energy management plans. So it's always good to show that where you are using, uh, you do want to use the funding to provide an greater energy resilience and particularly a place that will be available during power outages that you've integrated that with your local council or your local emergency service providers into their Emergency Management plan so that the building can be fully used and will be planned in when it when it's needed.
Okay. So there are some things that we won't fund. Again, this list is consistent with what we had in rounds 2. So I just want to call out a couple of things there, um, particularly the top one, salaries. So in round one we weren't funding salaries in round two and round three we are because we recognise that particularly for
not-for-profits, uh, a lot of your activities and salaries and wages are paid for out of grants. So we just ask that, um, where you are that we will fund salaries where they directly relate to the delivery of the project.
And um, if you are successful in being awarded a grant, we would then just, um, ask you to provide time sheets showing the full-time equivalent and the hourly wages, uh, associated with that. So also include that in your application just so that we've got justification for your budget. So where you're saying, oh, we would need this amount on salaries, just include bit of uh, information about the people who you would be paying the salaries for and why. Uh, as previously noted, we will fund uh required switchboard upgrades, laying of new cables, things like that. Um, anything that you need, sorry, for uh, the operation of a neighbourhood battery, as long as it's directly related to it. Um, and it wouldn't as extend as far as, uh, putting in a new shed or something to house the battery, uh, unless that is absolutely necessary. Um, so just be sensible about it. Um, any additional things that you put in obviously uh will be reviewed under criteria 4, which is the value for money, so if it's necessary, absolutely include it. But if it's a nice to have, really think hard about whether or not you need to have it in this grant. Um, as previously mentioned, we won't be funding electric vehicles or EV chargers, except where the EV charger is integrated into the BESS, into the battery.
So for instance, the um, I'm aware of the Sig Energy Sig and Store, which is a modular unit that includes both a modular EV bidirectional charger as part of the battery stack. Now that's not an advertisement for them, it's just mentioning that that's an example of where it is integrated if there you've got a large street facing EV charger and in one area and you've got a battery in another, that's the sort of example where we wouldn't be funding that EV charger, but an integrated one we would.
Um. So if you're not sure as to whether or not something would be covered, please just reach out, just contact us before you put in your application, so we can help answer any questions associated with that.
Now co-contributions. This is the big difference from round two. So uh, under this round, a co-contribution is no longer mandatory but it still will be favourably regarded under that criteria for the value for money. So what we ask is that when you do your financial model, you identify what your co contribution would be.
And ideally it would still be as in previous rounds, it'd still be 30% for stream one, 10% for stream two or 5% for stream 3. But if you cannot include that amount or a co-contribution at all we do ask that you clearly identify and spell out what the rationale is for not having a co contribution, cause that will be assessed and it could be that you're, you know, a not-for-profit that just doesn't have any funding available or you're a council that's particularly cash strapped and that would be the only barrier in you applying for this program.
So we do understand that there are reasons why people may not make a co contribution, but this is a competitive grant stream, so if we receive two otherwise identical applications in the one area and one of them has a co-contribution and the other one doesn't, we would naturally allocate the funding towards that one that is making better use of taxpayers money and represents that creative value for money under criteria 4.
So again, if you've got any queries about it, want to discuss it with us, do just, uh, reach out via e-mail address. Happy to always discuss. Um, but we would encourage you to really if you're not going to put in a co contribution or it's going to be less than those 30%, 10% or 5% you spell out exactly why, and just in terms of calculating that percentage, it is a percentage of the grant amount, not the total project amount. So if you were asking for $400,000 in grant, then a 10% cash contribution would be 40,000.
Okay, I will pass back to Campbell to run through the round three timeline and just formalise the presentation and then we'll get on to questions.
Campbell J Fox (DEECA) 27:04
Thank you, Kate. Um, this slide is quite dull and uh, we just want to pop it up there and just, uh, put it on the record and I guess reiterate that the timeline for the program is, um, published in the guidelines on the website and also presented here. So just please do familiarise yourself with the general timeline.
Um, I'll go through a little bit around the process that we follow in a couple of slides time, but just so you're aware there is going to be a naturally a bit of a lag, particularly with the process carrying over the Christmas, New Year's break. But we will, we intend to reach out to successful applicants, uh early in the new year and then uh execute funding agreements soon after.
So we will be using the Victorian Common funding agreement for any not-for-profits or councils or community organisations or our commercial funding agreement if you are a commercial organisation. And so yeah, they're very standard agreements, particularly the VCFA has obviously been well drafted and is set up to have a fair agreement for all parties. But yes, please do familiarise yourself with the timeline. Um, we often get emails and enquiries from people after, these periods and uh, yeah, we, I suppose we just hate to see people miss out on an application because of, um, just a mistake like that.
I'll also just call out that this is at this point the final round. So this is the last of the funding available for through these programs. So um, yeah, keep that in mind as far as applying now.
This is a bit of a self plug, but also very helpful, hopefully for yourselves. But we've got some really awesome tools and resources available on our webpage that have been developed by the team. And yeah, we think that they go a long way to helping people to not only build up their applications but build up their understanding of neighbourhood batteries.
So yeah, our website link has been plastered all over this slide show or just quickly search 100 neighbourhood batteries. But we've got online training videos that have been produced by Yarra Energy Foundation, who are a real leader in this space, which are really helpful to give you I guess that base understanding and do get quite into the technical elements. They're really helpful.
We've got our project readiness assessment tool, which is a bit of a mouthful, um, but that'll guide you in assessing whether enabled battery is the right solution. So a lot of the time obviously there's funding available and people want to get involved, but um, in many instances neighbourhood batteries might not be the most logical next step for you, so this will really help you to understand and define your problem and then also to look at the advantages and weaknesses of a different operational models for neighbourhood batteries that might work in your example.
We've got another tool, which is also a mouthful called the Revenue Cost and Benefit Development tool, which will help you to really crunch the numbers and work out, yeah, is this a project that is going to make sense? So obviously we also don't want to be selling you into some sort of project that is not going to benefit your community and particularly not in the way that you intended for it. So yeah, please do, um, check out the website, not just for the extra traffic, but also just so that we can, um, yeah, hopefully help you to, um, upskill in one way or another.
So here's the I guess the process that I touched on earlier that we sill be following. So applications are currently open and can be submitted via our grant portal. Questions have to be submitted by 5:00 pm, seven calendar days before the applications close, so by 5:00 pm on the 8th of September.
Applications must be received by no later than 11:00 am. So please note the 11:00 am on Monday the 15th of September and this is what I would recommend if you are able to is to really treat that Friday 5:00 pm as the closing day and give yourself the weekend off and um avoid the stress that often comes and that we often see from proponent to a last minute trying to get things in. Um, the system's very good and very reliable, so don't be concerned about that but um on the Monday morning. But yeah, obviously if you're able to, we would encourage that.
We do make it 11:00 am so that there is time for us to work through issues. However, we do have independent probity advisors that oversee this process and so anything submitted late is going to be subject to approval from a probity internal in pardon me, an independent probity advisor saying that there was not and is not any unfair advantage.
So you're best off Just avoiding that if you can. Um, as I said, I know as I've done, I've plugged the website a lot. There's lots of information on there about the program, about tools and resources, our e-mail addresses on there. We are very happy to answer questions if they're particularly useful and things that we've overlooked then we will also add them to our frequently asked questions which is semi regularly updated as long as often as we get questions and answers that we think yeah that that's of benefit to everyone.
So please do keep a close eye on that as well and then if there's actual issues or if you need support with the grant portal itself then our Gem's Team or Grant's portal Team are fantastic, so also feel free to reach out to them.
So we will now run through a quick Q&A or not quick rather. We've got plenty of time. Um, do feel free to ask any questions. Do also feel free, as I said before, to ask them to us via our e-mail. We are more than happy to respond to you directly and particularly when it relates to something specific. So, so far I can see we've got a question from LK who says when you say government entity, could that be a local council? I assume that that's referring way back when to the who can apply. And yes, local councils can absolutely and absolutely are eligible to apply through this program.
Then Mark Rexler has asked a question. Hi, Kate Campbell. Thanks for a fantastic presentation. You're welcome, Mark. Is there any means to be connected applicants with local Australian manufacturers? Thanks, Mark. So because we are the grant administrators, we aren't able to, I guess, meddle in or um, I guess I suppose link up applicants or potential parties because it it's kind of unfair on other groups who haven't done that. What we would really recommend that you do if you are interested is even just having a look at um previously funded projects. So looking on the website, looking at the types of groups that have applied the types of groups that have um that have been funded, but also that are clearly interested even looking at um, the people attending here today and identifying people that you might like to market yourself to or reach out to see if they're interested in a partnership to apply. So yeah, hopefully that answers your question.
So then David Harper and then I might throw to Kate shortly after David has asked, you say in some cases that salaries and wages could form part of application where directly delivering the project. Does that to extend to consultants or agency staff costs where hours are recorded?
Yes, you are of course able to apply for funding for support from those groups. Again, it all kind of feeds into the value for money to an extent as well, so obviously those additional costs will impact the total cost and therefore the cost per kWh. However, we do recognise and certainly encourage if you are a group who lacks expertise in a particular area or needs support in a particular area then.
You should certainly look to partner with groups who are able to support you with your application and support you with delivery of the project. So you can, of course, I think it's just, yeah, the hours recorded is a great thing that you've called out there. It's about, um, making sure that it's something that of course we can review and we will review through the delivery of the project, of course, we just want to make sure that it aligns with the complexity of the project and that the hours required to deliver it. Kate, I might throw to you and have a sip of water.
Kate Clark (DEECA) 35:31
Sure. And just on that, David, often um, where consultants or agency staff are employed, we tend to see that cost under project management, um, rather than staff, rather than salary. So you might make want to make a call on that. Where we're referring to salary, it is generally the salaries for people employed by the lead applicant themselves.
So we have another question from or first question from Allan Wong who's who says as a religious organisation would reduce bills for the for the for the facility be considered a benefit for our community, our members? It's an excellent question. And we have funded religious organisations before or organisations associated with religious activities.
It really comes down to how large is the community benefit. So for those that we've funded in the past, it has been for organisations that run outreach programs. So it might be offering youth mentorship programs or other community outreach that extend into their community and beyond and that in the application you give us a sense as to how many people that is because there's a there's a big difference between a community of 20 people and a community of 300 people. And that does speak to the size of the benefit the battery would be providing to that community.
Um, we've also funded another organisation that, uh, they are using the battery to help, uh, reduce the bills on their site where they regularly provide, um, community meals. So they do a lot of cooking on site. So again, that's a lovely example of, um, where the benefit extends to their to their members and beyond to the broader community. So just think about how you'd define that community and who's really benefiting.
Uh, let me just scroll through these questions. We've got another one from Owen McLeod. So is it a prerequisite or favourable to have solar already installed at the site where we propose the grant to fund the initiative?
Um, yes. Because it reduces the cost of things that we need to fund. Uh, if it's stream 3, uh, if it's stream one or two, um, we don't fund solar under those. So it's only for stream 3 where solar would be eligible. So it does depend on what is the use case for your battery.
Uh, if you're in an area where there is documented poor energy reliability, um, then you may be eligible for stream 3. But if you're not in one of those areas, if you uh, so if you're having to apply into stream one and two, we won't be funding the solar. So it would be better that you already have it on site because again when you're doing that financial model and showing the benefits that come, it's always going to be a much better model for the benefits that flow from a battery that is recouping much of its power from solar as opposed to purchasing it from the grid.
OK, we have a question from Kavinga. So costs involved in conducting the technical feasibility assessments and completing the DEECA 100 neighbourhood batteries grant application. Can they be claimed through the grant?
No, anything that occurs prior to anything that's occurs prior to the grant, uh, being granted, um, can't be claimed back. Um, so it's got to be any costs incurred following the following the awarding of the grant. This it can be a little complicated in defining the line, so I do encourage you to reach out if you have a specific example that you sort of want to work through.
We do recognise that there are some costs involved potentially in doing the feasibility assessments. Um, it may be that you want to reach out to a partner who's willing to or to an organisation who's willing to partner with you on the application. So they might be willing to take the risk of doing a bit of the feasibility works as part of a quote for you that you then use to put in your submission and therefore they would obviously be in a good position to undertake that works later if you're successful in getting the grant. I will pass back to Campbell to take the next question from Mitchell Benders.
Campbell J Fox (DEECA) 40:06
Thank you, Kate. Uh, so Mitchell has asked, can we apply for batteries at multiple buildings in a single application? You definitely can and we would definitely encourage you to do so. If you are looking to apply for multiple batteries, it means a lot less paperwork for you and for us as well.
What we do ask is that you do as clearly as you can delineate between the costs for each site and particularly as it relates to like those project management and other related costs that you might have that are that are not capital that we can't clearly just I suppose remove from the budget when we're recommending a project. So if you're able to separate and sorry I should explain that in that example that might be that we chose to fund or were able to fund two out of three or one out of three of the batteries and so of the proposed.
And so um, Just making it really easy for us to um to work out what costs are associated with um with what would be really useful for us in assessing. Otherwise we do often need to clarify these things. Um, which again is just a time thing more than anything.
We've got a question from James Marsh who asks in one of your initial slides, stream 3 was required to have a neighbourhood battery as opposed to a battery in stream 1 and 2. Can you advise your definition of a neighbourhood battery? That'll be a mistake from Campbell.
So they should all read neighbourhood battery. I suppose battery is probably being lazy or overlooking it, but there is the whole program is just neighbourhood battery. The sizing remains consistent as does the definition and that is in the guidelines and it's around the size of the system generally as well as the chemistry.
We've got a question from Nick who asks as a not-for-profit sporting club, we have an ABN that doesn't appear we are registered for GST. Will we have to register for GST to be eligible and do you have any insights on into how easy this is to do so?
You will need to, um, you will need to be registered for GST in order for us to pay you and that is generally because and we have this as a ruling generally because the cost for a project like this and the amount of money that would be funded or would be provided to any group would make you would pass that threshold. That means you do need to be registered for GST. And so yes, you do have to be registered for GST. We have had groups in the past and you're very welcome to do this if you are, as you said, a not-for-profit that doesn't currently need to be registered for GST because of your costs, you are able to apply and I guess commit in your application that you will, uh, register for GST if confirmed funding. Again, we don't want you to unnecessarily be doing things, um, or currently registering yourself. I personally don't have any insights on how easy it is to do, um, but yes, we do have applicants who have done that in the past to have just said, um, if we fund it, we will do it. Um, so hopefully that helps a little bit. Um, James Marsh has asked or has said some of the other locations we're considering a battery for are designated as emergency release centres, but the building is leased out to a community group for day-to-day operations such as your senior citizens.
Then it says or neighbourhood battery who pays energy bills in these instances. Would bill savings be sufficient as a community benefit as a community group is directly receiving the savings? Yep, that's a that's a great example of being able to pass those savings straight onto your community. So yeah, an excellent example.
Then we've got another question from Mark Wexler regarding energy resilience. Can this include backup power for telecommunications and EV charging resilience for the community in stream three? That is a tricky one. Kate, do you have any sports on that?
Kate Clark (DEECA) 44:13
Sorry, I was just distracted cause you skipped over 2 questions. Um, it's all right. I'll answer them in a second. No, don't stop. I wanna answer some. Um, so can.
Campbell J Fox (DEECA) 44:16
Did I? Oh, well, I'll come back to that one. OK.
Kate Clark (DEECA) 44:25
Look, Mark, send us a message about that one. It's we, um, it really does depend on what the benefit is and whether or not there's, uh, a need for a demonstrated need for resilience in that location. So yes, we're aware that, um, keeping telecommunications going during outages is a vital community service. We just want to make sure that it isn't an area where there genuinely are outages cause having a backup system that isn't required is not a benefit to the community.
So with the EV charging again, that one's tricky. Uh, this isn't an EV charging program, so we have other funding available for that. So it's it would probably not be eligible. You'd have to really demonstrate that there was an extremely strong need from the community to have EV charging as the sole benefit or, you know, as a primary benefit of the battery for us to consider that. So it's unlikely. But again reach out we're happy to have that chat cause I know it can vary depending on location there's very specific circumstances so.
Campbell J Fox (DEECA) 45:38
I think particularly for Stream 3, so Kate, Just adding to that like stream 3 is very much around energy resilience and so it's more about, yeah, a hub or a site for people to go to and utilise during emergencies as opposed to being able to find a charger as Kate said there would have to be a really significant demand and requirement for EV charging during outages and I guess a significant evidence just to support that that is something that is required in that location.
Kate Clark (DEECA) 46:07
Yeah. But it but it is unlikely cause we have said that EV charging is not eligible. So we would have to really see how it was integrated in.
Um sorry we've got uh going back we've got a question from Zac C can the federal battery re rebate be claimed as a co-contribution for the batteries under this program and if they're under 100 kilowatt hours.
The simple answer to this is yes, you can and should be claiming the federal battery rebate if your battery qualifies. So it does need to be a battery that's under 100 kilowatt hours and you can claim the rebate for the first 50 kilowatt hours, usable kilowatt hours of that battery. Whether you'd be claiming it as a co contribution, um, you wouldn't put it in that way. So what you would say is you are making a co contribution and then the quote that you get for the batteries should already have that rebate factored in. So if you know prior to June this battery cost 80,000 and now after the rebate it cost 60,000, it's that $20,000 difference that you know you've saved and you can dedicate that towards the co-contribution, but you wouldn't be putting it in your application that the co contribution is coming from the rebate because the rebate is effectively factored into the quote of your battery. You're never paying that money and then getting it back. It is already discounted into the battery quote. So I hope that makes sense if it doesn't.
Campbell J Fox (DEECA) 47:46
I think just maybe just also for the avoidance of doubt, like there, the cash contribution should be a cash co contribution coming from your organisation or a partner of your organisation, as opposed to, yeah, a rebate that will be applied in the backhand and will never really be seen.
Kate Clark (DEECA) 47:47
Reach out to us.
Campbell J Fox (DEECA) 48:02
And so you, yeah, as Kate said, if it was an $80,000 Project and then now it's only 60,000 for the best because of the lower cost and your $20,000 that you were going to put in, you could still put in, but it could be to increase the size of the system if required or it might just be a saving that both you and the government achieve as a result of the federal program.
Kate Clark (DEECA) 48:27
Thanks. So we've got another, this is a tricky one from James Marsh. So we're seeking batteries for emergency relief centres. We're following up on power issues, but part of the rationale for batteries at these sites is mitigating the risk of the loss of power in an emergency event. So flooding, fire, etcetera.
These are risks that are listed in the DNSP’s annual report which will impact the grid in emergency events. Is this sufficient argument for access to stream three? Look, I think what I would say here is given the climate change weather patterns that we are currently in, there's actually a lot of sites that could say this because extreme weather events are happening more and more, but this is a competitive grant round. We have limited funding, so we will prioritise sites that do have a demonstrated history of outages because the number of sites that could have future impacts of climate change is quite large. So we have to go with data that we already have. So do keep looking into those power issues and do consider um which of the relief centres are at higher risk of losing power because it's already happened in the past and provide us with that information. But um, you are. It is just one of one of many of the factors that we consider. So um, you are welcome to put an application on the basis of predicted outages, but it won't be as competitive against others that are able to put forward an argument for demonstrated outages. I think we've got a question from Abby Freestone. So just further to Owen's question, can you share any views on whether under stream one or two having a planned or future PV system installing within the next two to five years will help with the submission to remain competitive IE, is it okay for the battery to come before the solar, but still having solar planned and factored into the financial model? Um, yes, absolutely. Uh, you can do that. It does. We understand, you know, it's not possible to always get things in the right order, and we don't want you to hold off on making an application for this funding. Again, you probably wouldn't be as competitive as an identical application that already had the solar installed, because there's no guarantee that you would install it, and therefore the benefits that flow from the battery without the solar need to be stand-alone significant, and then they would just get better once the solar is installed.
Do reach out to us and if you want to have a chat about it, but it it's got to be that we will assess the application on the basis of what would definitely be installed, not what future plans would be. So you'd really want to be looking at maximising the benefits and the financial viability of the site with the battery before the solar is installed and then it would just get better if and when solar is installed. I'll pass over to Campbell to answer the next one.
Campbell J Fox (DEECA) 51:53
Thanks, Kate. So we've got a question from Manny who asks, are we encouraged to apply for a battery at a new site if a grant was awarded in an earlier round? I'm not sure whether you're meaning, um, Ithink that that's referring to if a if someone has received a grant for a different site in a previous round, are they still able to or encouraged to apply? You're definitely are encouraged to apply for an additional site if you have already had a project funded under this program. Of course we would recommend that it's not the same site and that there's a clear justification if you're looking in a similar locale that it's an additional site that is required. Um. So I think, yeah, just applying that that um lens of does it doesn't make sense. Is it, is it required? Um, as Kate said a few times, it is a competitive program and so um.
Yeah, if we've already, if there is already a funded battery or backup system in a particular town, and you're asking for another one in that town, then there would need to be significant justification and explanation as to how they differ or why they're both required, but, yeah, by all means you are encouraged if you've been funded before. Um, you're certainly welcome to apply again.
Um, that is the last of the questions at this point. Uh, there was a lot of great questions and there's also a lot of really specific questions, so as we've said, do feel free to reach out to us at any point. Our e-mail address has been plastered around this presentation, but also it's neighbourhood.batteries@deeca.vic.gov.au if you do have specific questions. We can't be overly, uh, prescriptive with our advice during the application period just because of probity principles. But we are very happy to have a conversation with anyone and speak to you to the best of our ability as far as advice on what's in, what's out, what do we mean by specific things. So yeah, do feel free to contact us at any point. Kate, did you want to add anything else? Otherwise I might close out the session.
Kate Clark (DEECA) 54:01
No, I think that's all of it. Just reiterating your message of please don't leave your application to the last moment. Um, our service can get a little bit congested. Um, and you might just, you know, forget to add a document or something in the in the, uh, your hurry. So please do try and do it, uh, the week before.
Campbell J Fox (DEECA) 54:21
Mm think about those uni days and how stressful it was. Um, wonderful. Well, thank you everyone for joining and for all your great questions and um, involvement in today. It was really great. So yeah, I hope to hear from a lot of you soon and yeah, please reach out if you have anything. Check out the website and uh, yeah, have. Have a great day. Thank you. Bye.
Kate Clark (DEECA) 54:43
Thank you.
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Page last updated: 31/07/25