Transcript for 100 Neighbourhood Batteries Program - Information Session

Speaker: Kate Clark (DEECA)  
Hello everyone and thank you for joining us. Just before we kick off, I will remind you that this session is being recorded. Video functionality has been disabled for all attendees. If you have any questions throughout, please ask them using the teams Q&A function as we will address as many questions as possible at the end of the presentation and take all other questions on notice to be addressed in an updated in FAQ next week.
OK.
So.
As we begin Wawa and Wamu, Yaya cast, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land that I'm joining you from, which for me is the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin nation. I'd like to pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and any First Nations people who are present on this call.
And I'd also like to acknowledge the land and pay respect to the traditional owners of the land that you're joining me from.
If I look a little distracted, it's just because lots of people are still joining this call, which is really good to see.
OK, I will kick off with a bit of an introduction. So my name's Kate Clark. I'm the 100 neighbourhood batteries program manager, and you'll also see in this call my colleague Campbell Fox, who's the senior project officer for this program as well. So we're going to spend the next 20 to 30 minutes telling you about the 100 NB program, about how you can apply and how they'll be assessed.
And then we're going to leave plenty of time to answer your questions. So as we said, if you have a question, just submit it in the Q&A box.
Only you and DEECA staff will see your question at first, and then when we get to the Q&A session, we will publish those questions as we answer them.
So if there are any questions that we don't have time to answer or that they might require a slightly more complicated answer, or we might have questions for you before we answer them, we will answer them after the session.
Do keep an eye on the FAQ because we will make sure that anything that is not currently addressed in that application guidelines will be included in the frequently asked questions document.
And we do update that every approximately every fortnight. So do jump on and check that.
So.
You are probably aware because you're here about the 100 neighbourhood batteries program, so it was an electric equipment from 2022 and obviously called 100 neighbourhood batteries program then. But that is what it's called now. So as you can see on the screen the program is seeking to fund projects that have a number of objectives.
And really, the some of the main ones that you might be familiar with are sort of helping to pass on the benefits of local renewable energy to local communities, consumers and customers, particularly through lowering household bills, but also through increasing energy reliability and increasing energy resilience, which is a new objective that we've added to round 2, based on feedback we've got from the community.
So this program builds on the lessons learned through the Neighbourhood Battery initiative that some of you may be familiar with because it's been running for a couple of years now.
So I will now pass across to my colleague Campbell, who will take you through the next few slides and we'll just tic tac over the next 20 to 30 minutes.

Speaker: Campbell J Fox (DEECA)  
Brilliant. Thank you for Kate and thank you everyone for joining us as well. So before we get stuck into the the details of round 2 of the program and and the design and and run through some advice for how to apply and things to look out for, we just wanted to explain some of the types of projects that we did fund through round one of the programme, just to sort of demonstrate how broad ranging the benefits the neighbourhood batteries can be. And to give you an idea of the sorts of projects that did meet the program objectives through round one, which are largely consistent with what you'll see for round two.
So I'll also just quickly note that before I speak about these projects that further information is available online and also remind you that we will share this slide deck after the fact. So don't feel like you need to be scrambling to write anything down. All of this information is available online.
And it, yeah, as I said, there is case studies and and one page summaries that we're working on or maybe I didn't say it but that we are working on for these and some of them are available now and and others will be added over the coming weeks.
The top project on the screen here and the the first project I'll run through for around one is Indigo Powers Neighbourhood Battery, which Indigo Power will install and operate their neighbourhood battery on a solar soak model and and there is information on the types of operational models on our website as well.
And they will pass all their savings from the battery on to their retail customers. So either through an increased feed in tariff or a decreased retail tariffs still to be worked out through their project design. Totally Renewable Yackandandah or better known as TRY are installing an islandable neighbourhood battery at the Yackandandah Sports Park. So that'll be used to support the local sporting clubs and the recreational activities that occur at the the sports park.
By lowering the energy bills that those branches and users are built and then also to provide shelter and energy resilience in times of emergency. So when there is either a fire or an energy emergency or anything like that, the people of Yackandandah have somewhere to go to access energy and charge their phones and somewhere safe to be.
Goulburn Valley Community Energy or GVCE are delivering two islandable behind the metre neighbourhood battery at 2 separate not-for-profit community sites that do experience outages so similarly the batteries are islandable and the intention with these batteries is that they'll reduce the energy operating costs for the not-for-profits that us them, which can then be reinvested into site upgrades to benefit the the causes that those two not-for-profit supports support.
The next three projects and just as a high level, I should have mentioned this start, but there are six projects that were funded through round one. If you weren't anywhere. So through two projects you can see on screen the Mondo power delivering a a fleet of neighbourhood batteries. So in Phillip Island and then Queenscliff and point Lonsdale in partnership with each of those local councils and their community groups that operate there. So there's Totally Renewable Phillip Island in Phillip Island of course. And then there's Queenscliff Climate Action Now in Queenscliff.
So, these projects intend and will unlock the potential additional local solar capacity in the constrained networks in these areas, and also establish first of their kind community energy funds, so which are delivered in partnership with the Community groups that I mentioned, to share the profits from their batteries with the communities.
Ausnet are installing a fleet of pole mounted neighbourhood batteries across their distribution network, including Metropolitan Melbourne and some regional areas, as well as an alternative solution to traditional network augmentation. So upgrading poles and wires themselves.
The intention of this project is to unlock the benefits related to the integration of CER consumer energy resources, formerly or sometimes also DER, such as rooftop solar in these localised areas.
And so before I move on, I just want to point out that while you're enabled battery concept might look like one of these, it also absolutely doesn't have to, as you'll have noticed, there's a diverse range of benefits that can be provided. But the one thing that is common amongst all of these projects is that they've got clearly identified who the beneficiaries are and what benefits the batteries are going to deliver to those beneficiaries.
So, when you are coming up with and developing your concept, if you've not already done so, it's it's really critical that you are really clear on who you're benefiting and how and that's something we would really encourage you to really focus in on when you're developing your concept.
So this slide shows sort of the nuts and bolts of the programme, the key application funding streams and I'll go through some of the details now. So collectively round two of the programme is making available up to $15 million, with up to $400,000 of project funding available per battery.
Projects need to be completed by 31 August 2026 and then, as you can see on screen, there's some slight differences between the three streams. And while we don't have time to go into great detail on the differences, I would as always encourage you to visit our website and our application guidelines. But you can see that stream one is targeting projects that deliver both network and community benefits. Stream two, is looking for projects that deliver community benefits and Stream 3, which is a new stream, is looking to fund projects that deliver community resilience.
So the funding that's available for streams one and two is for batteries only.
And then for stream 3 funding is available for projects to deliver energy backup systems that are capable of supplying power to one or more publicly accessible buildings during outages. So each system that is applied for has to include enabled battery, but you can also apply for funding for the installation of solar PV, a generator and all and energy management system, depending on your circumstances and what you need in your community.
And just for the avoidance of doubt, that $400,000 figure, for stream three is collectively for everything.
So for example and these are perfect round numbers and might not be the case in real life, but if you apply $400,000, you might look to put $250,000 towards the battery and $75,000 towards the solar and $75,000 towards the generator.
The other key differences between the the streams are the minimum cash co-contributions and they're based on the type of applications and the type of groups that we expect to be applying for each stream and that's why there are differences in those amounts. So for stream 1, the networking community benefits, it's a minimum of 30% for stream two community benefits only, it's a minimum of 10%. And then for community resilient batteries, pardon me, community resilience projects, it's a minimum of 5%.
And we would encourage you to to really think about, which stream is most applicable to you in your circumstances, and making sure that you are applying for the correct stream.
Although we can, we can clearly say that there is an appeal in the lower co-contribution amounts. It's worth considering what stream would, is, is actually true to your circumstances because we do expect the round to be quite competitive. And then the final changes or the final details rather are the minimum battery size, which is 20 kilowatts, 40 kilowatt hours for all three streams.
And then the maximum battery size is 5 megawatts, 20 MW hours.
There are some changes to be made and I've just really quickly talked through these 'cause. I am mindful of time.
The battery funding and the overall funding between rounds has increased. So from 300,000 to $400,000 to support a wider range of projects, this is between rounds one and two, sorry.
However, I would still point out and advise you that the applications will still be assessed on a dollars per kWh basis.
So, it is still important that the application is competitive or as competitive as it can be for your circumstances. The minimum battery size has decreased from 50 kilowatt hours, 100 kWh, 50 kilowatts, pardon me to 100 kilowatt hours to 20 kilowatts, 40 kilowatt hours, because we understand that the battery sizes from round one did exclude some regional applicants and based on some feedback, we sort out and received, we can understand that some of those regional applicants were either unable to install a behind the metre battery on a facility because it was too small or the facility itself didn't warrant having a solar PV system that was adequately sized to charge that battery.
And similarly because some some locations just don't have the electrical infrastructure or the need for that sort of battery size. We made a minor adjustments to the maximum battery size and then as I mentioned before, we've got their new energy resilient stream which I've already talked about in a bit of detail, but that was on the basis that we understand the energy resilience is a very real concern and that neighbourhood batteries can very much contribute to that.
Eligibility is pretty straightforward and and the main thing the main point I'd like to make just by even sharing this on screen now is just that it's really important that you go through both the project and the applicant eligibility and really be clear on the fact that you do meet all of those criteria. And if you have questions, you're you're welcome to ask us that.
The other thing that we'll mention is the roles that are involved. So if you're thinking about whether you're an eligible applicant, it's important also to consider who's the lead applicant for your application. Is it the community group, or is it a OEM on behalf of the Community Group and just being mindful of who can apply and how, how you can apply.
The table on this screen is pretty basic, and that's quite deliberate because we we know there's a lot of information involved in the assessment criteria and and I would encourage you to read them in great detail through the application guidelines and and the application form itself. But just to quickly summarise what each of the criterion are and and the weighting that's associated with them. So criterion one is focusing on intended outcomes. So assessing how your project aligns with the outcomes of the project of the program, for example, in for example, how will your project increase energy reliability?
How will the benefits from the storage be passed on to consumers as well as your ability to quantify the project benefits being networking, community benefits for stream one community benefits for stream two or community resilience for stream three and Kate will go through in the coming slides a little bit more detail on what the on pardon me on what sort of benefits you could be applying for under those. Criterion 2 focuses on the capability and capacity of the applicant. So you yourself and your project partners.
So how clearly are the roles and responsibilities defined for you and your partners? Is there support from the DNSP on your project and particularly where Benefits network benefits are being proposed? How sure are you that those, how confident can we be rather that those benefits are valued by the DNSP and warranted. And then for Criterion 3, looking at what the project will deliver and more or less assessing the overall quality of your application, you're supporting documentation.
And taking into consideration things like the clarity of your project design and deliverables, how clear your project milestones are that you've proposed, your delivery dates, your dependencies, and and also the ability for you to identify relevant risks and suitable mitigants to those. And then Criterion 4 is focusing on the lifetime value of the batteries or the energy backup system. So assessing factors such as expected costs of expected cost or revenues over the life of the battery, the total project cost.
And the total cost per kWh installed.
I'll now pass back to Kate to run through, as I said just a minute ago how to define Community network benefits, what sort of things we might expect to see there.

Speaker: Kate Clark (DEECA)  
OK. Thanks, Campbell. Look, I'll, I'll skip through this pretty quickly. 'cause, I know you're keen to get to the FAQs and much of this is written down, but we often do get questions about what is the difference between a network and a community benefit. Look, put most simply network benefits are generally things about mitigating minimum or peak demand or better voltage management.
Things that the distributors and people who are working full time in the energy network have a bit more ability to do. For most applicants, we would expect applications under stream two and stream three, so really focusing on those community benefits.
The one thing I will say about community benefits is we're really looking for them to be more than just installing a battery. So obviously you do need to install the battery, but what is the net benefit to a community of that battery?
So yes. For instance, if it's installed on a community building, it is going to, it should lower the energy costs of that building. And that is a benefit, but it's not a net benefit to the community. So what we're looking for is, yes, it's a decrease in the energy costs and then those savings are passed on to the community in some way.
So perhaps it is that the organisation that is leasing that is leasing the building has low energy costs.
And reinvest that back into decreased fees for people using the site or increasing the the services that they're offering.
I'll also point out that this funding is available to commercial enterprises as well, so it is possible to apply to put a battery on a commercial premises, but again, you need to demonstrate that the operational model will deliver a net benefit to the Community. So it it may be that the profit through the battery operation are passed on to subsidised energy costs for local community organisation or in some other way,
So we're quite happy to support you being creative but if you've got anything that you want to test with us before you put in your application, do just e-mail us to reach out.
Because we do want to make sure that you are delivering on community benefits and benefits, the community acknowledges and values.
So.
Just to run through a few quick examples. As you can see here.
Reducing household bill household energy bills, particularly for low income and vulnerable residents, is a great benefit that we're looking for, and this can most can be achieved a number of ways, but most simply through putting a behind the metre battery on a premises and this could be for instance, installing a battery on the shared administrative block of an aged care facility.
That has, you know, it's the largest block, therefore it has the largest space for solar PV on there. You put a battery on there and the savings or the income that comes from that battery is then passed on to all residents in the former, slightly lower energy bills.
Another example may be.
Or similar to that. So for a community organisation, perhaps using the battery to provide cheaper and more reliable energy for their use, but also using those savings or income to further benefit their activities as I've mentioned.
In terms of energy resilience, so noting that this third string energy resilience stream is designed for communities that tend to experience frequent and prolonged power outage. So it's very much about energy resilience.
It's about not only keeping the power on, but getting the power back on quickly when it goes out.
So stream two is more appropriate for more of the Community resilience in areas that do have more reliable power.
So for instance, we've been asked about if you want to provide get a grant for a heat refuge. So if you're in an area that does have reasonably reliable, excuse me, reliable power, but you want to provide a space on hot days, that has lovely, cool air conditioning that people can come to and and seek refuge from the heat. That would be fine for stream two.
So, installing a battery on a local library where the battery decreases the energy costs and may also reduce the strain on the local network during peak demand. And if it is an islandable battery and the power goes out, then it could do that as well. But it's not really if it's in a reliable energy area then it's it should be seeking stream 2 funding and stream 3.
So for those who have looked at the funding priorities, there's there are quite a few. I'll give you a few seconds to read over this and then I'll touch on a couple.
So a couple that I will draw out there are that.
Projects must be completed by the 31st of August 2026, but you'll see here in terms of priorities. We would love it if you could bring it forward a little bit if you're able to and complete it within the financial year by 30th of June 2026. So again, it's something it's one of the many priorities that we'll look at doesn't mean you have to deliver it by then, but if you are, if you have a timeline that allows that, there's slight preference for those sort of projects.
Equally with those that last point about priority local government areas, if you are in a priority local government area and those are listed at the end of the application guideline, someone still needs to apply. It still needs to be a quality application. There's no automatic granting of funds to those local government areas, but at the end of this program we do need a battery installed on each of those, so we do encourage you to apply if you're within one of those in one of those areas.
If you are not in one of the priority local government areas, we also encourage you to apply because of course this is the priority, but it's one of many factors that we're considering and all applications are assessed on merit and location of just one of one of those many aspects. So if you have a good application and it's outside of those 29 LGAs, it is still a good application and will be assessed fairly and good applications will stand in good stead for something.
So in terms of both that first slide was stream one and two.
The priorities for stream 3 for energy resilience are a little bit different, but I'll give you a few seconds to read through these.
So as as you'll see from these, we're particularly looking for areas that have the historical incidences of both frequent and prolonged outages. Now in terms of providing data, just make a case with whatever information you have available that might be Council records. It might be DNSP data, it might be university research, it might just be, it might just be newspaper articles. So we we understand that sometimes getting data from this is difficult, but you just make a case for us based on what, what information you have.
And if you have any questions about any of those others, just reach out and contact us.
Now on the next one, let's move the slide forward. So that again, there are a number of exclusions. It's tiny text. You will get these slides afterwards. And of course these are in the application guidelines. So I won't go through all of these. I will just call out that we have made a slight change from round one.
We know that for not for profits it can be quite difficult to fund these, because you are running on volunteers, so we have a made allowance for salaries and wages to be paid where they are directly related to the project.
Business as usual, costs are still excluded, but if you have to hire someone specifically to work on this project, their wage will be covered, but we will be looking at your application for you to specify what the full time equivalence is and the hourly wages for those people to include those staffing costs in the budget. And we would expect time sheets delivered with each milestone to justify those expenses. If you are granted the funding. So just be really upfront about it. If you need funding to cover staff to deliver on the project.
Do include it in there, but make it really clear for us to see just so we can judge that, and you can report on it later.
In terms of what we will and won't fund, obviously you'll see exclusions there that for stream 3.
For streams two and three there are different exclusions.
What we will fund in terms of streams one and two, whilst it is just restricted to the battery and we're not funding generation technologies such as solar PV and generators, but we will fund the little bits and pieces that go with installing a battery. So you know the pouring a slab to put the battery on, putting bollards or security fencing around it, you know, laying new cables, potentially a switchboard upgrade. We understand that both are part of the project. So those are not excluded.
Installing a generator and things like that are.
For stream three we do expect that solar will be part of it, so if you don't have solar PV then we'd expect that to be including that your application or you can integrate existing solar.
So, noting that obviously for that for stream three we are funding more than just the battery, it is that solar and switching equipment things that you require for an energy backup system.
All of those add-ons, while they might if they're directly relevant to the project, it must be essential project funding, noting that they do not include putting a new roof on on which to cite the the solar PV or a building to house the battery, it's got to be really essential and that any of these costs will increase the total project cost and therefore has impacts on the value for money assessment of the projects. So just keep it as tight as you can but as necessary and if you need new advice again do contact us.
Co contributions, so here really simply.
Yes, you do need to make a Co contribution of the value that's specified for the particular stream. I just want to clarify that.
Whilst in kind contribution, so non financial contributions you can count that towards the project cost.
In kind contribution non financial contribution doesn't count as a Co contribution.
In terms of the total project budget, so the total project budget has to be your monetary contribution plus the grant funding sought, whereas the total project cost can be that monetary contribution from yourself and from us, plus any in kind, you will get to the page where you need to fill all of this scene and this will make sense. But just being clear when it comes to the total project budget and putting in a budget that is really just relating to the money. Now I will pass back to Campbell to run through.
Conscious we're at 10:30, so we'll spin through as quickly as we can.

Speaker: Campbell J Fox (DEECA)  
I'll be very fast. So just a couple of hot tips. We'll call this section on the application form.
So, just to be clear, there are different application forms for each stream. There are slightly different questions and requirements for each of the rounds, so just be mindful of that when you apply the hot tip for this one or for this slide and for a lot of these, just to make sure you're ticking the right boxes or you won't be able to proceed, which will be frustrating. So just reading through the requirements and making sure that yes, I do meet all of the eligibility requirements on this screen.
For this one, this slide is consistent across the board and it's asking, yeah, what's how many batteries you've been proposing, where what size.
So just for this, we are mindful that sometimes the specific location can change or.
Based on technical feasibility or things like that. So just be as specific as you can and also in the the top section there just being as clear as you can be on how many batteries you're applying for and and what's the size of each of them.
This is sort of consistent for a lot of the answers. A lot of the sections of the application form, but all of them have word limits and that's obviously deliberate. If you could the advice we give people is to think about the application form and each section within it. As an executive summary for your answering, whatever the question is so.
Try to be as concise as you can and summarise that the answers that are that are required within that box as clearly as you can, but we do know that sometimes you need a little bit more room or you might want to or need to validate claims that are being made. So in that case you can provide additional information, quantifying benefits or validating information using the attachment section, which I'll get to in a moment.
And yeah, I can run through how and where to upload those files. Sometimes I know you can read this and wonder how do I prove it right away.
As with the previous slide for this one, yeah, a concise response that is essentially a executive summary and to remind you of what Kate said just before, if you are claiming or looking to put forward staff salaries, it's important to stipulate the approximate FTE or the full time equivalent.
Approximate pay rates that you will be charging against that.
For assessment criteria 3, there is no text box, and that's deliberate, so don't fret. This is just an attachment that should address all of the KSC. So this is your your business case. So again, and the advice is always to go through the assessment criteria and be really confident and clear that you've addressed all of the dot points because that is what you'll be assessed against.
For assessment criterion 4. Again, this is a upload a file response.
And then in this case you just need to tick the box down the bottom and and you will come to the attachment section later. So don't worry about that. Again, it's important that you've addressed all of the dot points and all of the requirements and have clearly calculated the numbers for each of the metrics that you can see on screen. So for example, clearly labelling or highlighting a cell that is your cost per kWh. You know that's a key metric that you've been asked to define and it's important that that's easy to see and easy to understand how that was calculated.
On that front, we've had a few questions regarding how to calculate return on investment. So on our website and you'll hear us shamelessly plugging that this a lot. We've got a lot of tools and resources and one of them is the revenue cost and benefit development tool, which is a bit of a mouthful. But that tool is essentially a business case tool that'll help you to calculate items and numbers such as your return on investment, particularly for streams one and two. So it isn't designed for stream three.
If anyone's looking to apply for that and does have any questions or uncertainty around how to calculate your return on investment, there are some frequently asked questions on our website again that do explain our expectations for how to calculate these, but then as always, do feel free to reach out if you have specific questions.
This the intention of this is just to show you that and this is due to the the system that we use that is quite rigid, but the attachments is done over three separate pages. So don't worry again if you're on one page and wondering where do I put this or how can I do it. Just sort of move your way through the through the slides. But for page 13 it'll ask you what are you going to upload. Page 14 will be your mandatory attachments. So putting forward everything that you do need to apply need to add. Sorry.
And then page 15 is the option to add additional files.
There are only two boxes for other supporting documents. That is deliberate. Apologies, but sometimes we can receive a lot of stuff and it and it's just quite difficult to go through. But if you do have more than two additional attachments, do feel free to collate them into a single file. Just put some headings in there so it's clear what's what in that document.
But those are sort of just some hot tips on how to use the system. Hopefully it is reasonably user friendly and self-explanatory and I'll just pass back to Kate to close out the presentation and then we can get stuck into some of your questions.

Speaker: Kate Clark (DEECA)  
Thanks for that, Campbell. OK, getting to the final stages, the dates.
Obviously be familiar with these really familiar with these.
Note that there is indicative timing for round three, so if you run out of time for round two or.
If you apply an unsuccessful, we will provide as much feedback as you like and you are then welcome to apply under round three, which will be in March next year.
Skipping ahead.
As mentioned, we have lots of tools do make yourself very familiar with our website. The FAQs are there. The Project Ready Readiness assessment tool so that just helps to do a quick feasibility to work out is this the is a neighbourhood battery the right solution for the problem that I'm facing and again that that revenue cost and benefit development tool is there as well.
And on this slide, so you can see the date there. It is deliberate that it closes at 11:00 in the morning on a Tuesday. That's because when we close at 5:00 PM on Friday, some people run into problems and we're not around to answer your calls.
So, I would encourage you maybe see 5:00 PM on Monday the 28th is the closing date, so just get it in there and don't leave it to the really last moment where sometimes if we have a lot of people trying to apply, sometimes the website can get a bit slower.
If you want to be really kind to yourself, maybe submit on Friday 25th and take the weekend off. So yeah, we just encourage you don't leave it to the very very last moment. But you do have until 11:00 AM on Tuesday the 29th of October.
Also be aware we can answer questions up until seven days before the applications close from so from the 22nd of October we will answer no more questions. In that last seven days. So if you do have any queries.
Do ask us in the next few weeks just to make sure that you've got the answers and you're giving yourself time to fill in the application.
So that's enough for us. We have talked your ear off and hopefully all of that's been really, really valuable. But now we've all flipped to answering your questions.
So we have our lovely colleagues have been behind the scenes collating all of your questions, so now we can start to go through them.
Campbell, did you want to take the first question?

Speaker: Campbell J Fox (DEECA)  
Jump in. So thank you, Finn, for your question around, evidence of intention to secure appropriate insurance with activity.
So what are we considered to be evidence in tension to good question and I think I think we'll take this one on notice as something to come back to respond to your specific question. But we did want to flag that this is an issue that we're aware of. So we know that obtaining asset insurance for neighbourhood batteries can be challenging. We encourage you to think about how you'll ensure the battery will be insured if you're successful.
But for this one, Finn, we will need to just take that on on notice as a specific question and come back to you via the Q&A or the FAQ rather.

Speaker: Kate Clark (DEECA)  
Brilliant. So we've also got a question from Vicki and look, I'll, I'll read out the question just because there are people don't have to be reading the Q&A at the same time. So can you apply for stream two and stream 3?
So the reason for my question is because we have a solar system installed at our Community House and we've been involved in Community education and in a sustainable House project to decrease our costs and therefore feed money back into the Community House programs, services. We would like to continue this with the Community resilience stream. However, we would also like to look at installing a Community battery on other sites for community education as further stages to be passed on community.
So, yes, you can apply for streams two and streams three.
But applications are made per stream, so the system won't let you tick two and three like when you when you start an application, the very first question which which link do you click? Is it the one for stream two or is it the one for stream three? So you would be.
You could apply for multiple projects or batteries under the one application. They have to be all under the same stream.
So we'd encourage you to apply under Stream 3 for funding for the Community House, and then a separate application under Stream 2 for those other sites.
Back to you, Campbell.

Speaker: Campbell J Fox (DEECA)  
Awesome, thank you, Kate. Yeah, good idea. So the next question was again from Finn, who asked regarding the plan to manage decommissioning and disposal of a neighbourhood battery at the end of its operational life. Are applicant's expected to provide decommissioning costs or is a high level overview of the proponent's approach to the best end of life sufficient so.
Short answer is a high level overview of the application stage is certainly sufficient. We know that the batteries have an expected lifespan and what happens to them after they reach this limit is reasonably, a very important concern for communities so and this, this will probably just only become a more important issue is electric vehicles become part of our transport fleet as well.
We are currently considering life cycle impacts of neighbourhood batteries as part of the circular economy policy. But yeah, for your initial application, a high level overview is is absolutely fine.

Speaker: Kate Clark (DEECA)  
OK. The next question is from Lloyd. So will the programme consider an innovative solution for commercial and industrial?
Yes, depending on just how innovative it is. So the the solution including the grant application will need to meet the specified outcomes and objectives of the programme for the stream that it's applied for. So installations on community, oh sorry, on commercial businesses, do really need to demonstrate that Community benefit. So identifying who the community is.
What the benefit is to the Community and also checking in that the Community want that benefit?
So do provide some sort of evidence that you have consulted. Define the community consulted with the community and that they are willing and eager to participate in that project.
In terms of the innovation for the solution, just noting that any battery needs to be a back technical readiness level of nine and there's a link describing what that means in the application solutions and it's got to be a chemical battery of minimum size 20 kilowatts to 40 kilowatt hours.
Maximum size of 5 megawatts up to 20 MW hours.

Speaker: Campbell J Fox (DEECA)  
The next question is from Matthew Charles Jones. Hello, Matt, who said hello, probably jumping ahead, but is there any advice on timing or need for around 3? So there will be a third round of 100 NB. It's expected to pardon me, 100 Neighbourhood batteries. It is expected to open in quarter one 2025, but that is subject to yeah government decision. But yeah, we expect it to open around then and and there will certainly be a third round.
Over to you Kate.

Speaker: Kate Clark (DEECA)  
Question from Claire. Can I confirm that part of the 400,000 can be spent on on solar PV panels for stream three only? Yes, I can confirm that grant funding can be spent on solar PV under stream three and that it can't be spent if you're applying under streams one and two. So stream three is the only stream that can fund projects that include the installation of new solar PV or a generator or energy management system in addition to the battery.
Over to you Campbell.

Speaker: Campbell J Fox (DEECA)  
The next question is from Kate Shaw, who asked what sort of evidence or support are you wanting to include in the application regarding the ability to fulfil the Co contribution requirements? And then thanked us. So you're welcome, Kate. Kate, the so essentially you have to have secured or have evidence of your commitment to provide the cash contribution towards the project. So if it's coming from you or your organisation, then it's just stipulating from you know your board or.
Someone with authority to say yes, we will be putting X amount of money towards this project if if successful and if it's coming from a third party. So in that case it needs to just be evidence that they are committed to providing the funding.
So it can be a a letter of support or an official correspondence from the source, of the Co contribution, depending on who it is and and what sort of organisation they are. But essentially it's just something to show that somebody is committed to providing that amount, if successful.
Back to you, Kate.

Speaker: Kate Clark (DEECA)  
Cool. OK, I'll take an I'll take the next couple of questions.
Cause I've got a few popping up there, So what? This is from Raymond. Thanks, Raymond. What is considered 1 battery? Is this by connection metering point? Yep, you guessed it. So DEECA will assess the installation of multiple batteries connected to a single connection point as a single battery.
So this kind of project will only be eligible for them for that 400,000 per battery connection point.
For instance, if you had say two 225 kWh batteries connected to on an apartment building and they might not be right next to each other, but they are connected back to the same connection point on that apartment building, then they would be considered one single 50 kilowatts of combined battery storage.
However, if an applicant is seeking funding for multiple batteries across the same town, as long as the batteries are connected at different connection points, they would be seen as different batteries.
Please note that as you'll see under I think Section 5 of the application guidelines that projects located in areas that have not received previous funding, you know, will be given slight priority.
So if you're looking at installing multiple batteries, do really make a strong case as to why more than one is required.
We've also had a question as to what evidence is required to support the  costing of battery installations.
So look, we know this is this can be tricky. We just want to make sure that you're that you have the evidence to give you confidence to know that you're applying for the right amount of money. So provide as much detail as you have, go out and get a couple of quotes if you are successful in applying for funding. If you are offered a grant, noting that that will be announced in approximately March next year.
We would expect you at that point once you have the grant to go and get another quote because it's six months later, batteries price might have come down. So we're just looking for you to get enough evidence to make sure that when you put together a budget, you feel that that's a pretty robust budget and that you're not. We would never want you to ask for so much that we don't think it's value for money and you're unsuccessful. But equally, we wouldn't want you to ask for so little that the project is unviable once you actually start to look into more detail and and try and spend that funding so.
Campbell back to you.

Speaker: Campbell J Fox (DEECA)  
Awesome. Thanks, Kate. So a couple of questions here. One from Kay Thompson asking when will the presentation be on the website. So we will publish it in the coming days.
As soon as possible, along with with some other interesting information that we can add and and uploading our FAQs as well as soon as possible. And we'll also circulate both the slide deck from this with you guys as attendees and also once we have updated our FAQs in response to some of the questions that we are taking on notice today.
Then we can also share that with you via an e-mail.
We also had a question from Matthew Everson asking can we apply for grant funding to supplement an existing project or contribute to future plan projects, so.
To answer the first question to supplement an existing project you can apply for funding for a project that is ongoing or or an existing project that you are delivering.
A few considerations that you might like to have there though, so one is obviously the level of risk. So if it's, if you're working on a project that is looking to build a building that hasn't been built yet, then that might be a risk of delivery timeline for us and will will the building be ready for you to put the battery on in time? And obviously it's based on specific circumstances. So it's hard to answer that explicitly. But yes, you can apply certainly it's just important to consider what the level of risk might be there.
Contributing to future planned projects is again a a risk so.
I guess the consideration that the government would probably take when looking at an application for a project for something that hasn't happened or is is a plan or would like to happen is again that there is risk that it may not come about. So just just be mindful of level of certainty and how much surety you can assurance you can provide that that would occur.
Can you include a provision? Sorry. Matthew also asked. Can you include a provision to include a generator change over switch?
I think so. Kate, did you have any thoughts on that? I think the switching gear is eligible for a strain 3 application.

Speaker: Kate Clark (DEECA)  
Absolutely. Under stream three that would that would be fine, that would be part of having a system work effectively.

Speaker: Campbell J Fox (DEECA)  
Awesome. Thank you. Did you want to take any more, Kate?

Speaker: Kate Clark (DEECA)  
But a couple left here, so I've got one from Peter. Who says?
If successful, an assistant is installed who manages the system. Is that expected to be done by the community or by an existing electricity supplier? Or does the community need to employ someone with the ongoing management? Look, this is an excellent question, Peter, and this comes down to why, as part of the application we do ask for a bit of business case a project plan because these are exactly the sort of questions that we want to be able to answer in the applications because we want you to know.
With confidence, this battery is going to be an asset and not a liability to the community that it's going to.
Address the problem that you have that it's not going to be in it. It's going to be a cost. It's not going to be ongoing cost that any you know there are maintenance costs associated with these batteries, but we would hope that the savings that you're getting or the income that you're getting from the battery would be sufficient to cover off on those. So there's a little bit of preliminary work that is necessary before you put in this application. So it really does depend on your circumstances as to who manages the system.
It might be as simple as putting in a couple of Tesla Powerwalls behind the meter on a on a community building, and that those would require very little monitoring and further maintenance. Not none, but a lot less than you would have for a big fronted metre battery that was installed somewhere in a public or open space. So I think if you've got any queries about that, maybe send us a specific e-mail and we can address your exact circumstances.
But very much also go and have a look at some of the feasibility studies that are available on our Neighbourhood Battery initiative website that were published a couple of years ago, because those will give you an idea as to some of the the questions that you need to ask and seek answers for in really assessing whether a neighbourhood battery is appropriate for you.
And I'll jump ahead to the next question, which is from Ralph around are electricity bill savings of a Sports Club sufficient for community benefit.
Possibly is what I would say to this one. So it all comes down to.
What constitutes the community in your application? So if you're apply applying for a, you know a $400,000 grant for a Community sports centre that had five members and was not open to the public for anyone else to use.
Then the bill savings from that might be significant for though for that club, but it's such a small community benefit because there's so few people who have access to it, so it wouldn't be a very strong application.
But if it was, you know this club is the the heart and soul of the community, that it also makes the building available for hiring, for weddings and other functions, that it doubles as a relief centre at times.
If this building is really essential.
Then yes, your community is much larger and the role that it plays, and therefore the benefits that are represented by those energy bill savings, can be much greater. So I think what I would do is encourage you to, yes, document who the community is and how this sports centre is used.
Quantify the bill savings, but also then take that next step and say, OK, if we're saving $500, $2,000 a year.
This is what we think we will do with that $500 or with that $2000 a year, you know we will buy more sports equipment or we will decrease the hourly hiring rate of the centre by $5. You know show us how those savings are passed on to your community so that we get a real rounding of the full benefits that flow from that, this, this battery and it's not just increased energy reliability or resilience or decrease cost.
It's energy. But it flows a bit further than that.
Now, do we have any further questions there, Campbell?

Speaker: Campbell J Fox (DEECA)  
Yeah, there's a few. So and apologies that we it's looking like we probably won't get to all of them in it and just want to remind everyone that we will answer your questions soon. Do provide keep putting them in and do send them to us via our inbox and we will respond to them directly and if it's relevant to everyone that's interested in the programme, then upload them to FAQs as well. So we've also got a question, do we have a preference on battery type? No, we don't have a preference as long as it's a chemical battery that meets the application guideline requirements then so that I think and I believe that it's just greater than a technology readiness level of nine.
Then that is that is eligible and fine to apply for it. It depends on your circumstances and and what sort of battery you need.
We've also got a question asking what's considerations have been made for the scope or site specific variations, so the example here is the CapEx value increases due to unexpected additional works of the site to complete installation of commissioning. So I believe that this question relates to contingency considerations, so applicants should certainly allow for contingency in your costs and delivery timelines.
Again, shamelessly pointing to the tool that is on our website that will provide some examples on contingency percentages for you to consider. James Thorne has asked is there a way to see all parts of the application form prior to filling out the application form and it's step by step. Unfortunately there is not James, you do need to click through. If you do really want to see or be provided then we could potentially PDF up the questions and send that to you.
But unfortunately the simplest answer is just no. You will need to click through.
We had a a question as well earlier around or sorry.

Speaker: Kate Clark (DEECA)  
Just on that one, Campbell, look, I if you do want to really look through the the full application form, James, you're quite welcome to just bash the keyboard to put some text in skip on. You can look through all the slides and then come back and and edit it so you don't have to work through and put your full answers from the beginning. You can save and return to the application form as many times as you like. So when we review these because we do review the forms before we make them available to you, we put in all sorts of just junk answers to make sure that and test them and test them to make sure that they work.
And then we go through and take that information out afterwards. So you're welcome to do the same.
Sorry, Campbell.

Speaker: Campbell J Fox (DEECA)  
We also received a question asking what evidence is required to support the costing of the installation. So is it just cost estimates or are quotes required? Provide what you have but we would certainly suggest and this is more as much for your benefit as DEECA's to to get as much information as you can. So seeking a quote will give you a better idea of what you are likely to have to spend on a battery.
To both procure it and install it, and also give DEECA confidence that you are are aware of what these costs are.
So we can see the amounts you've applied for and and your plan for delivering the project is is safe. The last thing we want to do is set up a project for failure based on not knowing the specific costs.

Speaker: Kate Clark (DEECA)  
I'll. I'll take the last question and then we will wrap it up. 'cause, we're just on time and then we'll we'll share. These screens will update the FAQ's over next week.
And if there's anything we haven't addressed, do reach out to us. So the last question from Brett is, would a couple of Tesla Powerwalls meet the minimum minimum battery size requirements? I might have preferred sort of off hand to a couple of them. Look, you'd have to do the maths. I think based on my knowledge of Tesla, Powerwalls, I think it would be a minimum of four connected in series that would meet the minimum  battery size, which is 20 kilowatt hours.
Sorry, 20 kilowatts to 40 kilowatt hours, so you'd need to double check with the battery specifications for those, but I think you'd probably be looking at 4 as being the absolute minimum. And of course it does depend on your individual circumstances as to what size would be required by the building that you're looking or the 2nd stance on which you're you're looking to use. Then you need a system that is designed for your requirements, not just meeting the minimum requirements of the application.
So thank you. Thank you everyone for being interested in the program and giving us an hour of your time to participate in this.
As we've said multiple times, do reach out if you have any queries. We really look forward to receiving your applications and we wish you the best of luck.

Speaker: Kate Clark (DEECA)  
Thank you.