Australia commissions first big battery at former coal site

From pv magazine Australia

French energy giant Engie and Eku Energy, the battery storage platform of Macquarie Group, have commissioned Australia’s first big battery in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. The 150 MW/150 MWh battery has been developed and funded through their joint efforts, marking a significant milestone as it operates within a former coal site.

The Hazelwood battery is believed to be Australia’s largest privately funded utility-scale battery to date. Energy Synapse founder Marija Petkovic recently pointed out that the commissioning of Hazelwood brings Australia to its first gigawatt of installed battery storage.

Hazelwood’s battery facility has been supplied, and will be operated and maintained, by US-based Fluence. The project is the first to use Fluence’s Gridstack battery system, which the company says is built for the “most demanding applications” including flexible peaking capacity, and frequency regulation. The facility incorporates 342 modular Fluence Cubes. While the battery currently only has one hour of duration, it is believed the project will eventually grow, in line with a broader trend in Australia for supersized batteries.

“With [the battery’s] access to transmission and available space at site, Hazelwood is the perfect location for an asset that can grow in depth and duration, increasing the hosting capacity for renewables,” said Engie Australian CEO Rik De Buyserie.

The Hazelwood site is reported to have access to 1.6 GW of dormant transmission capacity. The power station was built in the 1960s and closed in 2017. Power prices in Victoria soared as a consequence, and the debacle led to state governments to impose much stricter rules around notice periods of generation retirements.