Australia’s first six gigawatt hour battery to be built as part of massive multi-tech “grid resiliency” hub

Queensland state owned generator Stanwell has signed a new deal giving it exclusivity over a massive gas and energy storage hub that promises to host Australia’s biggest battery – at more than 6 gigawatt-hours.

Stanwell says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) granting it exclusivity over the proposed Gladstone State Development Area (GSDA) Energy Hub Project – a “multi-technology renewables firming and grid resiliency solution” being built in stages by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners.

The huge project, led by Quinbrook offshoot Private Energy Partners, proposes to combine a 780 megawatt, eight-hour duration BESS (6,260 MWh) and up to 1,080 MW of open-cycle gas turbines integrated with synchronous condensers.

It is proposed for a site around 7 km from Mount Larcom and 25 km from Gladstone.

Plans to partner on the huge GSDA battery were first announced last month as part of an earlier MoU between Quinbrook and Stanwell to demonstrate what they claimed was the first “true” eight-hour battery – the EnerQB BESS at the Stanwell Power Station.

The battery – if built to that capacity – will eclipse Quinbrook own Supernode battery project near Brisbane – also partly contracted to Stanwell – which has has more than 3,000 MWh already contracted, with plans for a 250 MW, 2,000 MWh addition to take its total capacity to more than 5,000 GWh.

Quinbrook says the combination of “flexible and responsive” gas turbines with long-duration batteries and synchronous condensers “in technical unison” is also a first for Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM).

The companies say the Hub will support network reliability and critical power system services in the Queensland coal and industrial centre, and supplying dispatchable power during peak demand, unplanned system outages or at times of low solar and wind generation.

For Stanwell, which had been expecting to retire its coal power generation plants by 2035 under the former state government’s Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan, the collaboration with Quinbrook represents a major new source of “affordable and reliable energy.”

The Sunshine State’s exit from fossil fuel generation is less clearly mapped out under the current Liberal National Party government’s leadership, which has promised to extend the life of ageing coal while winding back support for renewables, since being elected a year ago.

Nevertheless, Stanwell is pushing ahead with “novel configurations” of new and old energy assets to support Queensland’s critical heavy industries through a world without coal.

“This agreement provides Stanwell with exclusivity to negotiate commercial arrangements to facilitate the GSDA Energy Hub Project,” Stanwell CEO Michael O’Rourke said on Wednesday.

“As Queensland’s electricity demand increases, our collaboration with Quinbrook positions Stanwell to deliver to Queenslanders affordable and reliable energy for years to come.”

Quinbrook CEO, Brian Restall, says the deal shows that Queensland “remains a very attractive place to invest in the energy transition” – even accounting for the recent change of government and unravelling of state policy support for renewables.

“Our ongoing partnership with Stanwell demonstrates our shared commitment to delivering affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for the Sunshine state,” Restall said on Wednesday.

“Our pioneering EnerQB long duration storage solution combined with the ultra-long backup of open cycle gas turbines and then complimented by the grid stability services offered by synchronous condensers, marks another pioneering development by Quinbrook … a truly innovative contribution directly supporting Queensland’s energy transition and the Queensland government’s energy plan.”

In October, Quinbrook managing partner, David Scaysbrook, explained at a media briefing that part of the investment giant’s strategy in Australia is to bankroll long-duration “infrastructure batteries” to help soak up cheap renewables and power big industrial loads.

“The type of batteries that Quinbrook does are 15-, 20-year contracted to Origin or … Stanwell,” Scaysbrook said. “And the reason for that is these are incumbents that have a use for the battery that’s matching their entire retail book; that’s providing firming and price support and price protection against uncertain activities in the market.

“They’re not just using it, necessarily, for arbitrage, but what they want to do with it is really up to them. Quinnbrook’s role is to own it and operate it and make it sure it’s available for when they need it.”

Scaysbrook says Quinbrook’s partnership with China battery giant CATL and its considered approach to project location has allowed the company to build batteries at a lower cost than some of its competitors. 

“When you look at the technology improvement curve of batteries, even over the next two to three years, it’s nothing short of breathtaking,” he said in October.

“We can take the …cheapest form of electricity in places like Gladstone and Townsville, take the surplus solar, put it into the battery during the day … and we’ve got eight hours of cheap solar stored in those batteries, and then we can get to 16, 18 hours a day of supply.

“And if you’ve got 320 sunny days a year, that is a very, very powerful combination.

“Forget subsidies. I’m not talking about subsidies. I’m talking about Quinbrook, or someone else, building a large-scale solar-battery hybrid with an eight-hour battery in a place like Gladstone and Townsville is delivering incredibly competitive energy cost without government handouts.” 

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