Just 21 of 400 of Labor’s community batteries operational

Anthony Albanese promised a $200m spend at the last election to ‘support 100,000 households by storing energy from solar households during the day, and drawing on it at night’.

Chris Bowen speaking at the official launch of the Team Global Express Battery Electric Vehicle fleet, Eastern Creek. Picture: Damian Shaw/NCA NewsWire

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Just 21 of 400 community batteries promised by the Albanese government at the last election are currently in operation, latest departmental figures show, despite Energy Minister Chris Bowen saying they would help lower power prices and stabilise the electricity grid.

Anthony Albanese promised a $200m spend at the last election to “support 100,000 households by storing energy from solar households during the day, and drawing on it at night”.

The promise formed a key plank of the government’s energy policy.

Figures from the past two rounds of Senate estimates show just 21 of those batteries are in operation. The community batteries program is being administered in two different streams: $171m by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, and $29m by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources.

Of that $171m stream, just one of the 370 batteries contracted so far were in operation, ARENA told Senate estimates at the end of last year.

Of the $29m stream overseen by DISR, 20 of the 58 locations have a community battery in operation, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water told Senate estimates last week. All of the contracts for the 58 locations have been awarded and all but one are “currently operational or under way”, it said.

At the time, Mr Bowen said Labor’s “Power to the People will unlock the full potential of rooftop solar for Australian households – lower power bills, cut emissions, and help stabilise the grid”.

The “technology of the future to cut household bills and emissions is already here, we just need the policy settings to unleash it”, the Labor statement said.

Opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien slammed the revelation, saying “nother key election promise has been exposed as a sham”.

“Three years later, local communities that were promised these batteries deserve an apology, not another empty commitment,” he told The Australian.

“Labor’s Energy Minister has proven time and again that he cannot be trusted to deliver, and the Prime Minister is too weak to hold him to account.”

Mr O’Brien said Australians had been promised a “green dream” but had been “delivered a nightmare”.

“They have failed on every climate and energy commitment they made, and the list of broken promises keeps growing,” he said.

“They swore power bills would drop by $275 – Australians are paying up to $1,300 more than promised. Labor guaranteed a more reliable grid, yet blackout risks persist and gas shortages are growing.”

A spokeswoman for Energy Minister Chris Bowen claimed Mr O’Brien “doesn’t know what he is talking about when it comes to community batteries”.

“Just a couple of weeks ago he issued a press release claiming work hadn’t started on the Caloundra community battery – in fact, it was switched on the very next day,” she said.

“More community batteries are being opened every day and the program rollout is on track – the minister is looking forward to launching four more tomorrow.”

Mr Bowen’s office did not provide updated figures on the number of batteries that were operational.

Think tank Grattan Institute’s energy program director Tony Wood said it was “not surprising that it’s taking a while”.

“You’ve got to get the whole business model of this to work,” he said.