Newcastle is set to become a testing ground for how battery storage can work across the varied electricity demands of local government facilities, with planning underway for 12 batteries totalling 13.8 MWh across the city.

The $11.99 million City of Newcastle project will place batteries at its large Summerhill solar farm and a range of smaller council facilities, allowing their performance to be assessed across sites with different patterns of electricity use and, in some cases, existing rooftop solar.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is providing $5 million towards the project through Community Batteries Round 2 under its Advancing Renewables Program.

While ARENA records the project as commencing on 1 August 2026, City of Newcastle says it remains in the early planning stage. An Expression of Interest for the design and delivery of the Summerhill battery was issued in mid-2026, with installations expected to begin progressively from 2027.

Testing batteries across different sites

The largest installation will be a 5 MW/10 MWh battery at City of Newcastle’s existing 5 MW solar farm at the Summerhill Waste Management Centre.

Another 11 batteries, providing a combined 3.8 MWh of storage, will be distributed across council facilities. City of Newcastle lists sportsgrounds, community centres, libraries and swimming pools as examples of the types of facilities involved.

The locations will include sites with existing solar as well as those without it. That mix is central to what the project is intended to establish.

City of Newcastle operates assets with very different electricity requirements, from swimming pools and theatres to streetlights and sporting facilities. It has already installed smaller solar systems at high-demand sites and operates the Summerhill solar farm on a capped landfill site.

ARENA says the project will assess the economic performance of batteries across different council assets, including facilities with time-dependent electricity use such as sports field lighting.

Storing energy when it is cheaper

The project follows City of Newcastle’s investment in solar generation and a 10-year power purchase agreement with a wind farm.

According to ARENA, volatility in solar feed-in prices and the cost of importing electricity from the grid during periods of peak demand have contributed to higher electricity costs and uncertainty for the City.

Battery storage provides an opportunity to change when electricity is bought, stored and used.

The batteries will be able to absorb excess solar generation or store grid electricity when prices are lower, then provide electricity when prices are higher. The project will examine whether this can improve the use of electricity generated on site and reduce peak-demand costs across the City’s broader energy portfolio.

The batteries will also be incorporated into City of Newcastle’s existing power purchase agreement with Flow Power.

Under the arrangement outlined by ARENA, the batteries will be used to manage exposure to spot electricity prices and generate revenue through participation in the electricity market, including energy arbitrage and frequency control ancillary services.

Existing grid connections and renewable energy infrastructure will be used where possible to reduce deployment costs.

Newcastle experience to be shared with other councils

The project is intended to extend beyond assessing whether batteries work for City of Newcastle’s own facilities.

ARENA says one of its aims is to develop a blueprint that other councils can use when considering battery installations across different types of assets.

City of Newcastle is also developing a knowledge-sharing plan for councils and larger organisations considering similar battery programs.

The project will examine some of the technical requirements involved in deploying distributed batteries at scale, including CSIP-AUS communications standards and dynamic operating envelopes.

It will also test how distributed energy resources can be integrated with energy markets and market operator systems, and how batteries can interact with electricity network constraints.

ARENA says the project is intended to build industry capability in community battery deployment while demonstrating how batteries can store distributed solar generation for later use and support further solar installations.

For Newcastle, that work will begin with one large battery at Summerhill and 11 smaller systems operating across the everyday facilities used by the community.

For more information on the project, go to ARENA’s website here.