Australia’s Clean Energy Council has welcomed a recent change in recommendations by the Queensland Electrical Safety Office (ESO) concerning home battery installations.
The CEC says the ESO had previously recommended all residential energy storage units should be installed in a separate external enclosure.
Aside from this being overkill in the opinions of many in the industry, the recommendation could have resulted in a chilling effect on uptake of solar batteries in the state; discouraging some solar owners from increasing their energy independence and making the most of their rooftop solar panels.
“Customer safety is a big priority for the energy storage industry, and the Clean Energy Council believes battery units should meet strong international standards and be installed by an accredited installer to clear guidelines,” said Clean Energy Council General Manager of Industry Integrity Sandy Atkins.
“If batteries meet these strong standards, there is clearly no need for them to be installed in a separate external enclosure.”
The ESO now recommends:
“When considering the location of the BESS* components in a domestic installation, the designer/installer should conduct a risk assessment to address the risks of the battery technology being used in that location.”
The ESO says recommendations regarding installation location will be subject to further review once the related Australian standard is finalised.
The issue of the looming standard caused some panic recently when various rumours started circulating as to its contents. Apparently, one of those rumours was that residential on-site battery storage will be banned; which Standards Australia said was inaccurate and misleading.
“Contrary to recent speculation, Standards Australia is not developing standards that will ban the introduction of on-site lithium-ion battery storage in Australian homes,” stated Standards Australia in a February media release.
There has been some concern that a new national standard would require a separate external enclosure for batteries. This would – and already has – faced major opposition, reportedly leading to a delay in the public release of a draft.
The Clean Energy Council has previously stated that while a robust framework for home battery systems is essential, heavy-handed regulation would put energy storage technology out of reach of many households and cripple the sector.
“This is an exciting technology and we should be doing everything we can to encourage more widespread use rather than putting on the brakes before it properly gets going,” said Clean Energy Council Chief Executive Kane Thornton early this month.
Release of the draft and public comment is now scheduled for April 2017, but this is subject to change according to Standards Australia.
*BESS : Battery Energy Storage System
