Standards Australia has released a statement regarding public consultation on the draft battery storage standard DR AS/NZS 5139.

Over 3,000 comments were received on the draft and Standards Australia says many of these related to how systems should be installed in a residential context.

“Given the significant response to the draft standard, along with the fact that this is a new building technology with limited existing direction from governments, Standards Australia has offered to bring key stakeholders together to start a discussion and establish a framework through which these public policy tensions can be addressed,” says Standards Australia in the press release.

“In Standards Australia’s view, our technical committee is not the appropriate forum to resolve the public policy tensions related to public safety, clean energy and minimum residential construction requirements. If there are policy issues for the respective governments to address, this should be determined before any further standards development work is progressed.”

The Energy Storage Council says it is pleased that Standards Australia will be pausing the development of the standard to allow fundamental questions around the nature and scope of the standard to be resolved.

“This is exactly what we have been calling for. The Energy Storage Council will continue to work hard for evidence based standards to guide industry and provide best practice outcomes for consumers as part of a joint initiative with the Australian Solar Council,” says Australian Solar Council chief executive John Grimes.

In its press release, Standards Australia says it made the decision to pause development of the standard because mandated residential construction requirements are ultimately public policy matters for governments

“Standards Australia will continue to work with its technical committee and all stakeholders on this issue and hopes that a parallel policy dialogue will give our technical committee the guidance it needs to get on with the technical work.”