Homeowners in Adelaide's north are being targeted for Australia's largest suburban trial of power-storage batteries.

Key points: SA Power Networks will take customers off grid to avoid an expensive network upgrade

SA Power Networks will take customers off grid to avoid an expensive network upgrade 100 customers in Salisbury will be selected to trial batteries

100 customers in Salisbury will be selected to trial batteries Batteries combine with solar to power homes around the clock

SA Power Networks wants to recruit 100 customers at Salisbury to purchase a heavily subsidised home storage battery, as the power distributor attempts to avoid a $3 million network upgrade.

Battery systems can store electricity from solar panels or the grid, to be used at night or when there is a blackout.

"The cost for batteries is about $10,000 to $20,000 but we'll be supplying batteries for half that at less than $3,600," spokesman Paul Roberts said.

"Salisbury is one of the areas where [power] demand is increasing, due to urban infill where houses are being demolished and replaced by units, and also increase by demand by different energy behaviours.

"If we don't see some sort of solution we will need to invest about $3 million to actually upgrade the [network] capacity to meet the growing needs."

A $3 million allowance from the Australian Energy Regulator will help fund the trial along with money from SA Power Networks.

Letters are being sent to 2,500 customers asking them to purchase the Tesla and Samsung batteries, which were chosen through a tender process.

Eligible customers will need to use a minimum of 4,000 kilowatt (kW) hours of annual grid electricity — or 2500KWh a year on solar panels — and be connected to one of the powerlines being targeted in the trial.

Mr Roberts said they would also need to have maximum of 3kW of solar panels, with SA Power Networks offering to help foot the bill for those who need to buy them.

"We're looking at whether or not combining solar with battery storage will mean we can avoid investing in the network and therefore help contain long term costs for customers," Mr Roberts said.

"If this can apply in other areas as well then we can really make a difference in containing long-term costs."

Emerging battery technology set to combine with renewables

South Australia has among the highest levels of renewable energy generation in Australia.

John Bradley, the CEO of the Energy Networks Association, said 40 per cent of the state's electricity was consistently coming from wind and large-scale solar.

Power-storage might help SA Power Networks avoid a costly network upgrade. ( Supplied: SA Power Networks )

But he said storing renewable energy remained a huge challenge across the country.

"The great tragedy is that so much of our renewable energy is lost because we don't have a way of storing electricity generally on the grid at the moment," he said.

"We're delighted to see the SA Power Networks initiative, it is a groundbreaking moment for the use of storage to help save costs for all network costs.

"This initiative means they are using battery storage at the customer premises instead of investing in more poles and wires, and this is really the way of the future."

SA Power Networks hopes to begin installing the batteries by June.