SPONSORED CONTENT
By Alex Beveridge, Area Vice President, ANZPI & Strategic Markets
Australia’s energy future is being shaped by two competing priorities: the urgent need to decarbonise and reach net zero, and the challenge of meeting electricity demand that’s expected to double by 2050. When you consider that up to 65% of Australia’s electricity supply still came from fossil fuels in 2023 (the latest year for which there are publicly available figures), realising our clean energy goals will require a fundamental rethink of how we produce, store, and distribute electricity.
This transformation is already taking place but what’s remarkable is where it’s taking place —not just in government policy or utility-scale infrastructure, but also in the everyday decisions of consumers. With a projected capacity of around 120 GW by 2050, distributed energy resources (DERs)—like rooftop solar panels and residential batteries—are on track to become Australia’s largest source of electricity, even surpassing the contribution of large-scale solar and wind farms.
But for DERs to deliver on that promise, residential battery storage will need to play a much greater role. It’s what allows households to store excess solar energy, reduce pressure during peak demand, and even feed power back to the grid when needed to help stabilise it.
The rollout of Australia’s $2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries Program, offering 30% discounts on battery installations since 1 July, alongside state-based rebates and virtual power plant (VPP) incentives, has triggered an unprecedented uptake. In just a few weeks, more than 11,500 home batteries have been installed, marking what could be the first signs of a full-blown battery boom.
Affordability is helping to open the door but to reach scale, batteries must deliver shared value—supporting both household energy goals and grid resilience. Achieving this balance depends on customer-centric orchestration that balances control, visibility and trust.
The Battery Opportunity: Residential Potential and Pitfalls
Rooftop solar panels have transformed household energy generation in Australia, mainly because their output is relatively easy to predict. The sun shines, panels generate.
Batteries, however, are more complex. They require active, intelligent orchestration. Will the battery be charging or discharging? Is this driven by rooftop generation, electricity spot prices, or unique household needs like EV charging patterns?
While batteries promise major household benefits, from optimised solar use to bill savings and even revenue opportunities, uncoordinated or unfair orchestration can negate these benefits.
The importance of ensuring that consumer interests remain central to market dispatch of battery capacity is critical to achieve a high adoption and participation rate. To achieve the full value of batteries for both households and the grid, consumer trust through transparent visibility and meaningful control over how and when their batteries are used is required. Without this, there is risk in slow adoption delaying the broader benefits of a smarter energy system.
This is why new standards such as CSIP-AUS 1.3, with shared control extensions, are so important. They allow the customer to “reserve” the charge in their battery up to a certain level and limit when and how third parties can access their battery.
To get more homes on board, orchestration needs to work for consumers. And that requires granular forecasting, real-time insights into household usage and flexible coordination—capabilities delivered by Itron’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) solutions.
How Batteries Support a Smarter, Decentralised Grid
Managing increasing supply and demand variability is one of the biggest challenges in our energy transition. Residential batteries, if orchestrated correctly, can act as a powerful buffer that stores excess solar energy when supply is high and discharges when the grid is under pressure.
Individually, a home battery can reduce a household’s reliance on the grid. But when connected and coordinated through a VPP, batteries become a dynamic, decentralised resource that enhances grid resilience and stability. Participation, however, hinges on consumer confidence and fair compensation.
Programs like the federal Cheaper Home Batteries initiative, along with state-backed schemes such as South Australia’s VPP Program, Western Australia’s Residential Battery Scheme, and New South Wales’ VPP Connection Incentive, are doing more than making batteries affordable; they’re enabling a new model of energy. One where households are empowered to contribute to building a more resilient, responsive grid.
With the right orchestration and accurate forecasting, household batteries can serve as community assets that increase reliability, reduce costs, and enable greater renewable penetration.
Grid Enablement to Empower Battery Integration
The vision is indeed compelling, but coordinating tens of thousands of residential batteries is no simple task, especially with each household having unique usage patterns and solar outputs. Utilities need accurate forecasting and real-time visibility to manage the increasingly diverse nature of residential energy use, with Itron’s DERMS platform addressing this challenge at scale.
Itron’s collaboration with a large Australian energy provider, is helping pioneer battery integration. The provider is sponsoring battery-related extensions in the CSIP-AUS 1.3 specification that will provide the shared control functions to safeguard consumer interests, and Itron is the first vendor to implement them. Together they’re laying the groundwork for fair and coordinated grid orchestration.
How Itron’s technology enables this:
- Using granular AMI data to understand real household needs and improve battery forecasting.
- Integrating batteries into VPPs and promoting time-based optimisation that aligns with consumer priorities.
- Providing real-time analytics to orchestrate peak demand response without compromising consumer benefit.
Shaping the Future of Energy, One Home at a Time
Affordability is accelerating battery adoption, but it’s consumer trust and fair orchestration that will be essential for long-term success and real grid results.
Advanced platforms like Itron’s DERMS—aligned with evolving standards such as CSIP-AUS 1.3—are essential to unlocking the full value of residential battery storage.
When consumers have control and clarity, and when orchestration delivers value to both households and the grid, batteries shift from backup devices to critical enablers of Australia’s clean energy future.
This is more than just a technology shift and signals a larger transformation. One where every home plays a part in powering a cleaner, smarter and more resilient Australia.
