One of three High Voltage 350 MVA transformers that will form part of Australia’s biggest grid “shock absorber” has hit the road: It’s destination, 1,000 kms away, is the Waratah Super Battery in New South Wales.
Victorian battery storage developer Akaysha Energy posted to its LinkedIn on Wednesday a video of the 477-tonne superload making its way to the project site, around 100km north of Sydney.
The transformer set off on its mammoth road trip from Wilson Transformer Company in Victoria, traveling up the Hume Highway in a transport comfiguration measuring around 125 metres in length.
The Waratah Super Battery – at 850 MW and 1680 MWh – will likely be the biggest battery in Australia when it is connected to the grid in two years, and the biggest of its type in the world. It has been described as the biggest machine of any type to be connected to the Australian grid.
The battery will act as a kind a giant “shock absorber” for the grid, with up to 700 MW and 1400 MWh reserved (for varying parts of the year) to play a specific role that will allow the main transmission lines feeding electricity into the major load centres in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong to be run at or near full capacity.
