Labor Drives Down Bills With 100 Neighbourhood Batteries

Victorians remember all too well that it was Matthew Guy’s Liberals who sold off our essential services to private multinationals, sending profits offshore. Now, with energy costs soaring, Victorian families are paying the price.

That's why a re-elected Andrews Labor Government will bring back government-owned energy – reviving the State Electricity Commission (SEC) and powering our state with cleaner, cheaper renewable electricity to drive bills down. At the same time, our plan will support 59,000 Victorian jobs.

It continues Labor's strong record of delivery in driving down cost of living pressures for Victorian families – all the while making Victoria a nation leader in renewable energy.

Thanks to the Labor Government, more than 200,000 Victorians have installed solar panels – putting a power station on their roof and driving down their energy costs. It means that as many as one in every five homes have solar panels, generating enough energy to meet a third of our state’s total residential electricity demand.

But we’ll do more.

It's why a re-elected Labor Government will invest $42 million to install 100 neighbourhood batteries across Victoria, tripling the number of homes with access to a battery and providing crucial extra storage capacity for local communities.

Where the Liberals handed control of our energy supply to big private companies – these neighbourhood batteries will return power into the hands of local communities – meaning a secure energy supply at the end of the street.

Increasing storage capacity will mean more households can reap the rewards of returning surplus solar-generated electricity to the grid through feed-in tariffs. And it means more households will have access to cheaper renewable energy – even if they don’t have their own solar panels.

The investment will support 25,000 homes to access local renewable energy, tripling the number of homes that have access to a neighbourhood battery.

Labor will initially install batteries in 28 communities across Victoria – 15 in metropolitan Melbourne and 13 in regional Victoria.

We will work with community organisations, local governments and distribution companies to identify the locations for the remaining 72 batteries.

They build on the neighbourhood batteries Labor has already delivered in Fitzroy North and Yackandandah and those currently being built in Tarneit and Phillip Island.

These neighbourhood batteries will store this clean, cheap energy when it is abundant during the day and feed it back into the grid when it’s needed at night – keeping the lights on and power bills down.

We have built the biggest battery in the Southern Hemisphere in Geelong, installed big and neighbourhood batteries across the state and given thousands of rebates to help families buy household batteries for their Solar Homes.

We have launched world-leading energy storage targets of 2.6 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy storage capacity by 2030 and 6.3 GW of storage by 2035 – enough renewable energy to power around half of Victoria's current homes at their peak energy use.

In contrast, you can't trust Matthew Guy’s Liberals on energy – they cut renewable energy programs, banned wind farms and sold off Victoria’s publicly-owned energy to private multinationals.

Only Labor is doing what matters – driving down household bills, reducing emissions and taking real action to fight climate change.

Quotes attributable to Premier Daniel Andrews

“Victoria is the battery capital of Australia with a world-leading storage target. Now we’re building 100 neighbourhood batteries across the state to make sure all families can share the savings from our solar boom.”

“Victorians know the Liberals should never have sold off our energy supply. Labor will give it back to local communities – with a power station on your roof and a secure energy supply at the end of your street.”

“Only Labor is doing what matters – driving down power bills and creating thousands of Victorian jobs in government-owned renewable energy.”

Quotes attributable to Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Action Lily D’Ambrosio

“You can’t trust Matthew Guy’s Liberals to keep the cost of living low – he laughed at Solar Homes, tried to axe our renewable energy targets, banned wind farms and drove up bills by selling off public power to greedy energy companies – and Victorian families are worse off for it.”

“One hundred batteries in communities across the state will drive down power bills and pave the way for us to reach our world-leading targets – 95 per cent renewable energy by 2035 and net zero emissions by 2045.”

 Initial Neighbourhood Batteries

  • Ballarat

  • Bass Coast

  • Baw Baw

  • Campaspe

  • Cardinia

  • Casey

  • Darebin

  • East Gippsland

  • Greater Bendigo

  • Greater Dandenong

  • Greater Shepparton

  • Hume

  • Knox

  • Macedon Ranges

  • Maribyrnong

  • Merri-Bek

  • Mildura

  • Moira

  • Monash

  • Moonee Valley

  • Mornington Peninsula

  • Port Phillip Bay

  • Wangaratta

  • Wellington

  • Whittlesea

  • Wodonga

  • Wyndham

  • Yarra Ranges

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