Broken Hill battery makes first appearance in “most challenging” part of grid

The Broken Hill big battery – being built in the famous mining town at the edge of Australia’s sprawling main grid – has made its first appearance on the National Electricity Market after being included in the market operator’s management system.

The 50MW, one hour battery is being built by AGL at the end of a long transmission line that is often subject to heavy restrictions and means that the 200 MW Silverton wind farm and the 53 MW Broken Hill solar farm are among the most constrained projects on the grid.

The $41 million Broken Hill battery project is being backed the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which provided funds of $14.8 million because of its exploration of the use of “grid forming” inverters in what ARENA boss Darren Miller described as “some of the most challenging conditions” on the National Electricity Market.

Construction began on the project last November, and is using Fluence technology. Geoff Eldridge, from GPE NEMLog, says the battery entered the Australian Energy Market Operator’s management system this week, indicating it is now ready to begin the commissioning process.

AGL has also completed a 250 MW, one hour battery at its Torrens Island gas complex in South Australia, and recently won a tender that will likely see it build a 500 MW, two hour battery at the site of its shuttered Liddell coal generator in NSW.

Broken Hill will also see more storage built, with Transgrid finally convincing regulators it should be allowed to replace the town’s ageing back-up diesel generators with a state-of-the-art compressed air storage facility that will be built in a disused cavern in one the region’s main silver mining leases.

The 200 MW, eight hour storage facility to be built by Hydrostor is expected to help create a massive renewable micro-grid in the region, and lead to more mines and manufacturing capacity that can be powered with low cost and emissions free renewables and storage.

Fluence hás also recently completed the 200 MW, one hour battery Hazelwood battery (pictured above) at the site of another shuttered former coal generator.

See RenewEconomy’s Big Battery Storage Map of Australia