Australia now has a body to represent the local energy storage sector – and some of the names behind it will be familiar.
Launched last week, the not-for-profit Energy Storage Council is governed by a volunteer board and its CEO is John Grimes, who is also the CEO of the Australian Solar Council. The ASC has been actively engaged in energy storage focused training courses in the past.
“Energy storage brings exciting new opportunities for the energy industry and for energy consumers. Deployed wisely it can significantly bring down electricity costs and make the electricity network more robust, flexible and reliable,” said Mr. Grimes.
“It is important that energy utilities engage with the energy storage sector sooner rather than later. Too often the energy sector ignores emerging technology trends and is blindsided when they are deployed widely. That’s why one of the first things the Energy Storage Council will do is to focus on developing standards and protocols for embedding energy storage into the energy network”.
The Council’s board members are: Steve Blume (President), Glen Morris (Vice President), Paul Scerri (Secretary), Anthony Sachs (Treasurer), Dr Bill Parker, Barbara Elliston, Geoff Bragg, Lucas Sadler and Gabrielle Kuiper.
The Australian Energy Storage Council says it will play an important role to play in creating industry standards and encouraging best practice.
“The time is right for this organisation to be developed in its own right and it will be guided by its membership and the needs of the energy storage sector beyond solar applications,” said Mr Grimes.
The Council represents companies including technology manufacturers, equipment providers, project developers, consultants, utilities and other energy industry leaders and aims to connect local and global industry partners in the rapidly growing sector.
In 2012, Pike Research forecast that the total capacity of long-duration or bulk energy storage on the grid (ESG) systems worldwide will surpass 14,000 megawatts by 2022.
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