Read time: 6 mins
Based on City-scale integration of distributed energy storage resources for an all-electric energy future by Bin Lu, Marnie Shaw, Bjorn Sturmberg, Anna Nadolny, Timothy Weber, and Kylie Catchpole, published January 2026.
In a model of the ACT energy network, ANU researchers have found that electric vehicles and water heating could help avoid millions of dollars in costly grid upgrades. How? By acting like ‘distributed batteries,’ improving the grid’s responsiveness to demand.
Read time: 6 mins
Based on City-scale integration of distributed energy storage resources for an all-electric energy future by Bin Lu, Marnie Shaw, Bjorn Sturmberg, Anna Nadolny, Timothy Weber, and Kylie Catchpole, published January 2026.
1
Everyday devices act as storage. Electric vehicle (EV) batteries and hot-water tanks give the grid large amounts of distributed energy storage, helping it balance demand with renewable supply.
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Simple scheduling pays off. Timing when these devices charge and heat respectively cut peak demand growth by over 50 per cent, minimising costly grid upgrades.
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Heating buildings is different. Electric space heating is hard to time differently. So, policies for building more energy-efficient buildings complement electrification policies.
Energy policymakers think a lot about transport and heating. After all, these account for around a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions. As these sectors electrify, millions of new devices are plugged into the grid.
Consider a hot-water system. Households use hot water when they need it but can heat it at any time of day. Effectively, the tank stores that energy until it’s needed, much like a battery.
Electric vehicles work on the same principle. People drive whenever suits them, but their vehicles spend 90 per cent of the time parked. So, it’s available for charging.
Together, these devices are a new kind of storage.
DES is all the storage the grid gets from everyday devices, rather than grid-scale batteries. Researchers at the ANU Centre for Energy Systems modelled the ACT’s electricity network to assess DES’s benefits.
Because DES vehicles and hot water belong to people and communities, not the grid, the study outlined different charging and heating scenarios. Some were based on typical behaviour, others based on strategic scheduling.
The results show that DES adds substantial storage to local networks, improving flexibility and allowing the same infrastructure to handle more energy. In practice, this means cities can integrate more renewable generation and help defer costly grid upgrades.
For perspective, the average ACT resident uses about 16 kWh of electricity per day.
With DES included, the model showed:
“In practice, this means cities can integrate more renewable generation and help defer costly grid upgrades.”
