Funding secured for plug-and-play energy storage project

The Victorian Government has awarded Selectronic Australia $250,000 in grant funding as part of the New Energy Jobs Fund, making an important contribution to a renewable energy storage project in the process.

Australia is expected to be one of the largest markets for battery storage due to the high cost of electricity, the large number of households with solar panels and Australia’s excellent solar resources. However, the cost of energy storage still remains high with long payback times. The project aims to reduce that payback time and give people more control over their power choices.

“This project with ensure that the Victorian new energy industry leads the way through delivering sophisticated forecasting and increased system efficiency within existing locally developed technology,” said Selectronic Australia CEO Rod Scott.

Selectronic will be working with other project partners, including Relectrify, to use shared communication protocols to enable plug-and-play between intelligent inverters, batteries and weather forecasting apps. Theirs is said to be the first project in Australia to use SunSpec communication protocols to enable compatibility between locally made components — inverters and batteries — as well as integrating third-party software into the system.

“It is a pleasure to team up with Selectronic Australia to tackle this industry-leading project,” said Relectrify CEO Valentin Muenzel, whose company re-uses capable battery cells in its battery systems. “We believe the intelligent battery solutions that will be demonstrated in this project hold tremendous cost and sustainability benefits for households in Victoria and beyond.”