Another three big batteries – and a new solar farm – enter grid management system

Another three big battery projects, and a new solar farm, have entered the grid management system of Australia’s market operator, starting off on their path to commissioning and full production.

The latest of three big battery projects – all identified by GPG NEMLog’s Geoff Eldridge – is the Brendale battery in the suburbs of Brisbane, the latest project brought to the grid by the Blackrock-backed Akaysha Energy.

It is joined by the first stage of the Supernode battery, also in the outer suburbs of the Queensland capital, which will end up being the biggest battery in the country once all three fully contracted stages are built.

Two weeks ago, another battery project located on the outskirts of a big city, the Smithfield BESS in western Sydney, also entered the grid management system. The relatively small 65 MW, 130 MWh Smithfield project is being built by Iberdrola and is co-located with an existing peaking gas plant.

Eldridge notes that the 120 MW Munna Creek solar farm near Gympie in Queensland has also completed construction and has now entered the grid management system. Australia’s first eight-hour battery project, the 50 MW, 400 MWh Limondale facility, is also expected to follow soon.

Brendale is a 205 MW, 410 MWh battery and is the first Akaysha project with Tesla Megapack batteries, although it is also using them at the much bigger 415 MW, 1660 MWh Orana battery that it is building in NSW.

Akaysha is currently commissioning the country’s most powerful battery, the 850 MW, 1680 Waratah Super Battery in NSW, and is also nearing completion on the Ulinda Park battery in Queensland. Both those projects feature Powin battery technology, but that company has hit financial difficulties and has sought bankruptcy protection.

The first stage of the Supernode battery is sized at 250 MW and 500 MWh, and is contracted to Origin Energy, which has also contracted the second stage for a combined capacity of 520 MW/ 1856 MWh.

A third stage, contracted to the state-owned generation company Stanwell Corp, will lift the size of the facility to 760 MW/ 3096 MWh.

That will make it the biggest in Australia, overtaking the current titleholder, Neoen’s newly completed 560 MW, 2240 MWh Collie battery in Western Australia, and the 700 MW, 2800 MWh Eraring battery being built by Origin at the site of the country’s biggest coal fired power station that is now due to close in 2027.