Image: SMA Australia.
German based inverter and battery storage specialist SMA is claiming two firsts for Australia’s electricity market, after sealing grid connection approval for what it says will be the country’s biggest solar hybrid power plant, and the biggest to feature grid forming technology.
The Eurimbula project, now owned by UK-based Elements Green and located near Gladstone in central Queensland, will combine a 696 MW solar farm with a 666 MW, 1332 MWh battery, and will sit in the heart of the state’s central renewable zone.
Grid connection approval was received from the Australian Energy Market Operator and the local transmission network Powerlink on May 14.
SMA head of sales for large scale projects in Australia Tim Hale says Eurimbula will be among the first utility-scale hybrid projects in Australia’s National Electricity Market to deploy grid-forming technology at this magnitude.
The grid-forming inverters will enable the battery to deliver essential services – including fast frequency response, synthetic inertia, and fault ride-through – functions traditionally provided by synchronous generators (although there is yet to be an official market for some of these services).
“This project is a big step up for SMA and the renewables sector in Australia,” Hale said in a statement. “It will be the largest NEM-connected solar and battery hybrid project in Australia, and its successful development thus far clearly demonstrates how SMA’s grid-forming technology can be scaled to meet the NEM’s needs.
Hale told Renew Economy that SMA has now received approvals for more than 2 gigawatt hours of grid forming battery capacity in Queensland, NSW and Victoria, and is working on similar projects in South Australia and elsewhere.
Grid forming inverters are seen as essential for high renewable grids, because they are able to replicate many, if not all, of the grid services traditionally provided by synchronous generators and spinning machines, although AEMO is yet to be convinced that they can reliability substitute all those services.
Hale points to the recent blackouts in Spain and Portugal, which energy experts say highlights the vulnerability of grids that do not have systems and technologies that can react quickly, and accurately, to major disturbances. Spain, despite having high levels of renewables, had hardly any battery storage connected to its grid.
“Grid events such as the recent blackout in Spain highlight the vulnerabilities of power systems with increasing levels of renewable generation,” hale says.
“It is more important than ever to invest in fast-acting, modern system strength solutions — like grid-forming batteries — to support solar and wind generation whilst maintaining system reliability.
“SMA is proud to support Elements Green and Queensland’s clean energy targets, proving that hybrid systems can deliver both generation capacity and stability.”
The inverter industry is still waiting for a market to be developed that will include payments for services such as inertia (which exist in the UK and have been newly announced in Germany) and system strength.
In Australia, the approach has been to use a stick rather than a carrot, penalising wind and solar farms, and even grid scale batteries with grid following inverters who operate in a weak part of the grid.
Some projects have faced bills of several million dollars in the form of system strength penalties, forcing many new projects to turn to grid forming batteries to deflect those costs. But the industry argues that a fairer and more useful system would be to create a market for those services.
Elements Green, meanwhile, says it hopes to break ground on the Eurimbula solar battery hybrid later this year. It will be its first project in Australia, but says it has a pipeline of 3.75 GW of capacity, and more than 14 GW globally.
“We are now focused on completing the remaining approvals to enter the construction phase as planned,” Toby Roberts, the company’s country director in Australia, said in a statement.
The Eurimbula solar battery project was formerly known as the Rodds Bay solar project, originally developed by Renew Estate, but has since been sold, renamed and upsized.
SMA said its hybrid system delivery includes:
Although it is called a solar battery hybrid, it is not the same as a DC-coupled solar battery hybrid, such as the already operating Cunderdin project in Western Australia, and the Fulham project in Victoria now under construction and the newly approved Blind Creek project near Canberra.
Those projects operate behind the same connection point and a single set of inverters, and are able to use the battery to charge the battery without losing power in the conversion.
mSee Renew Economy’s Big Battery Storage Map of Australia for more information.
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