Local Renewable Energy Zone (LREZ) pilot

A Local Renewable Energy Zone (LREZ) pilot project site will be established at Caloundra and Townsville to help the community generate more renewable energy, and store it and share it locally across the poles and wires infrastructure that already exists.

LREZs aim to put customers at the centre of the energy transition where local customer energy resources like solar, storage, EVs, hot water and other appliances will be coordinated with our network and network energy storage across entire communities to take full advantage of the scale and value of the roof tops of Queenslanders.

LREZs will be a complete local energy system for communities coordinating generation from rooftop solar installations, electric vehicle charging, customer batteries, hot water, community and network batteries, with the existing network infrastructure to support a renewable energy transition led by customers.

The Queensland LREZ is a nation-first project to maximise the value of locally produced renewable energy for all customers including renters, vulnerable customers and those who live in unit complexes and do not have access to solar power.

Roof top solar is already a significant contributor to our emissions reductions targets, however there remains untapped potential for roof tops to host even more solar. The LREZ will seek to encourage increased levels of renewable energy generation by homes and businesses, with support from batteries in an efficient way that gets the most benefit from the existing poles and wires infrastructure that already exists.

The pilot project includes a partnership with universities and peak body organisations such as the Smart Energy Council to research key elements of the pilot program to inform customer incentive programs, economic models, customer adoption and behaviour, and technical standards. This vital research will inform the future design and development of LREZs across Queensland.

The LREZ enables communities to lead the way in the renewable energy transition and will bring together customers, retailers, and networks for a co-ordinated collaborative approach to delivering on renewable energy targets supporting not only the local area, but also the Queensland energy system.

Open Local Renewable Energy Zone modal

Queensland's Local Renewable Energy Zones aim to put customers at the centre of the energy transition.

What does the LREZ involve?

The LREZ pilot project will see the deployment of up to 8.4MW/18.8MWh of battery storage and support up to an additional 2.8MW of solar PV, and 0.9MW of demand management across nearly 550 residential and commercial customer sites starting from January 2025.

The project will optimise the size of behind the meter customer assets such as solar PV, batteries, home energy management systems and dynamic connections.

Local Renewable Energy Zones will give Queenslanders access to local, clean energy, and economic opportunities.

LREZs will:

1. Improve the reliability and resilience of energy supply, by providing a self-sufficient source of clean energy and storage locally;
2. Reduce the infrastructure investment required in our electricity distribution system by smoothing Queensland’s peak solar energy profile;
3. Enable the grid to be ready for more EVs by co-locating solar, storage, and EV charging to reduce the need to upgrade the grid as demand for EV infrastructure grows; and
4. Help deliver significant components of the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan.

Want more information?

Contact us to find out more and register your interest in being involved.