Federation's Stephen Panizza and Edify's John Cole at the Darlington battery. Photo credit: Michelle Grogan.
Federation Asset Management and Edify Energy, the owners of what is now the biggest battery storage complex in New South Wales – at least for the time being – say that construction is now complete and they are about to start the testing and commission process.
The Riverina and Darlington Point energy storage systems have a combined capacity of 150MW with two hours of storage (300MWh), but are actually three independent and co-located batteries that have pre-sold their output for 10 years to Shell Energy and EnergyAustralia:
The individual units are the
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and NSW governments have jointly provided $13.1 million in funding under the Emerging Energy Program to support the use of grid-forming inverters to boost the hosting capacity of the local grid.
Federation owns 90 per cent of the battery complex and Edify Energy, which will operate the projects, owns 10 per cent.
The complex, sited next to the Darlington Point sub station, and close to the large solar farm of the same name, is bigger than the Wallgrove battery in western Sydney (50MW/75MWh) and the soon to be complete 100MW/200MWh Capital battery being built by Neoen in the national capital.
But it will be overtaken in coming years by the Waratah “super” battery (850MW and 1680MWh), as well as the first stage of the Eraring battery (460MW and 920MWh), and the proposed Liddell battery (500MW and possibly one hour storage).
Other big batteries are also proposed in other major load centres, including at the sites of the shuttered Wallerawang coal plant and the existing Mt Piper coal plant. Eku Energy will also be building a 250MW/500MWh Big Canberra battery for the ACT government.
The NSW grid has the biggest coal fleet in the country, but this is expected to mostly close down in the next decade, to be replaced by 12GW of new wind and solar, and another several gigawatts of battery and other long duration storage.
“Edify is very proud of this asset, both technically and physically,” Edify CEO John Cole said in a statement.
“Tesla’s Megapacks are the most advanced battery systems in the National Electricity Market, equipped with grid forming inverters that operate in virtual synchronous generator mode.
“This allows the storage system to operate in a manner akin to a conventional generator and provide crucial system strength services to help facilitate the connection of future clean energy power plants in the region.”
Stephen Panizza, founder and co-head of renewable energy at Federation Asset Management said battery energy storage is vital to advancing the dispatchability and resilience of an expanding renewable power system.
The Riverina and Darlington Point battery energy storage systems is located on Wiradjuri country, the largest Aboriginal Nation in New South Wales.
Federation and Edify held a function last week to celebrate the completion of construction, and guests were welcomed by the traditional owners of the land, which is on Wiradjuri country.
Edify has previously built the 25MW/50MWh Gannawarra battery in Victoria, which is also contracted to EnergyAustralia, and sits next to the solar farm of the same name.
See RenewEconomy’s Big Battery Storage Map of Australia
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