FWP continue to monitor the role and price of battery systems for the Park Ecovillage. The scale of batteries required to take the Park Ecovillage off-grid is prohibitively expensive. As much of the battery capacity would be used (discharged and recharged) infrequently, the cost of the electricity from the batteries becomes very expensive.

Batteries can reduce the cost of running the Park Ecovillage electricity network:

• A smart grid capable of reducing peaks of demand on an ongoing basis would reduce FWP import costs.
• Strategic placement of batteries where the NFD network is weak may avoid the need to lay new cables of larger capacity.