As Australia is racing ahead to expand the deployment of renewable generation systems, battery energy storage and power infrastructure upgrade have become essential in maintaining the reliability and quality of the electricity supply in the country. Recently, French energy developer Neoen won a contract to build the largest battery storage plant in Australia to date. Located in the state of Victoria, the project will be another array of Tesla batteries.

The government of Victoria announced in late November that Neoen has been awarded a tender to build a 300MW/450MWh energy storage facility in the port city of Geelong, which is about 70km south of the state capital Melbourne. Currently called “the Victorian Big Battery”, the project will adopt Tesla’s Megapack technology. Its functions will be to stabilize the regional grid and store the excess electricity produced by local renewable generation systems.

The scale of the Victorian Big Battery will break the Australian and global records. The Hornsdale Power Reserve, which was completed at the end of 2017, is currently the largest operational Li-ion battery array in Australia and the world. Situated in the state of South Australia, the Hornsdale Power Reserve was jointly developed by Neoen and Tesla. Besides having established a successful record in strengthening the regional grid, it also has the additional benefit of lowering electricity prices for local end-users. When the Hornsdale Power Reserve first came online, it offered 100MW/129MWh. Since then, the battery array has been expanded to 150MW/194MWh.

In the case of the Victorian Big Battery, Tesla is not promising to finish the battery delivery within 100 days as it did for the construction of the Hornsdale Power Reserve. Nevertheless, the execution of the new project will proceed at a rapid pace. According to Neoen, the Victorian Big Battery is scheduled to enter operation no earlier than the summer of 2021. Once fully charged, it can provide power to around 500,000 homes within 30 minutes during an emergency.

Apart from storing renewable electricity, battery arrays also serve as transmission assets. With the Victorian Big Battery, the electricity produced by solar projects in the northern part of the state can be transported into the centers of the regional and national grids. Battery arrays therefore constitute a new and important class of infrastructure that can help maximize the transmission capacity.

Thanks to ambitious policies, Victoria’s renewable energy market has grown significantly. Here, battery storage plants play a key role in addressing the challenge of intermittency. They hold surplus electricity produced by renewable generation systems such as wind turbines and solar panels during times of peak generation. Then, they discharge the same electricity into the grid during times of peak demand.

The Victorian Big Battery will be operating under a contract awarded by the Australian Energy Marketing Operator for providing 250MW of generation capacity that will be shared among different states. Neoen will be responsible for the installation and cost of the battery array, while residents of Victoria will be paying for the service provided by the array through their electricity bills. Based on the performance of the Hornsdale Power Reserve, end-users covered by the Victorian Big Battery could see a reduction in their electricity bills as well.

Lily D’Ambrosio, Victoria’s minister of energy, environment, and climate change, said that Neoen’s latest project will stabilize the grid during summers, create new jobs, and cut the cost of electricity. Moreover, it will help drive the recovery from the economic recession that was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Robyn Denholm, chairperson of Tesla, said that the Hornsdale Power Reserve clearly demonstrates the cost saving and efficiency of battery energy storage. As a result, governments in other countries are also considering building similar facilities.

 (Image credit: the Australian Energy Marketing Operator.)