Community BESS deployed at SA retirement villages

Sungrow has deployed battery energy storage systems (BESS) at two Living Choice retirement villages in Flagstaff Hill and Fullarton, South Australia. The Chinese company, which has grown into a global provider of PV inverters and energy storage systems, said this latest project represents a significant milestone, as these two BESSs are among the first commercial and industrial (C&I) community sites in the state to undergo CSIP-AUS (Common Smart Inverter Profile for Australia) testing.

CSIP-AUS is an Australian implementation guide for the IEEE 2030.5 protocol, offering enhanced security, configurability and remote command execution for distributed energy resources. Having undergone CSIP-AUS testing, Sungrow’s South Australian deployments mark a critical step in adapting to the state’s implementation of tighter grid interoperability.

Designed to ensure power supply for equipment while generating revenue through energy arbitrage and frequency control ancillary services (FCAS), the Living Choice systems enable their communities to reduce operational costs and actively participate in Australia’s evolving energy market.

Under this framework, SA Power Networks dispatches export/import limits and ramp-rate instructions via Sungrow’s iSolarCloud platform API, with the BESS dynamically responding while continuing arbitrage and FCAS trading. By supporting CSIP-AUS, Sungrow not only meets current DNSP compliance requirements but also reduces integration complexity and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) deployment costs — this is critical for the scalability of C&I energy storage projects, the company said.

Achieving FCAS commissioning

With more and more renewable energy being incorporated into the grid, frequency control ancillary services are becoming increasingly important. Their role is to maintain grid frequency stability by quickly responding to supply–demand imbalances, regulating the charge and discharge of energy storage systems and keeping the frequency within an acceptable range. FCAS not only supports the safety and reliability of the power system, but also provides flexible resources to the electricity market, enabling broader integration of renewable energy into the grid.

In deploying its BESS projects, Sungrow collaborated with SA-based energy services provider YES Group, a key client and strategic partner.

“By supporting YES Group in these deployments, Sungrow is helping set a new benchmark for compliant, high-performance storage systems in community settings,” said Joe Zhou, Country Director of Sungrow Australia.

“It highlights our ability to deliver storage solutions that are technically advanced, grid-responsive and fully aligned with Australia’s shift toward dynamic energy regulation.”

Image: Supplied