Construction complete at Victoria’s second-biggest battery, contracted to Big Oil company

Victoria’s second-biggest battery, the 200 megawatt (MW), 400 megawatt-hour (MWh) Rangebank Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) has been completed in the outer south-east Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne.

Rangebank is the second BESS to be developed in Victoria by Macquarie offshoot Eku Energy, in this case in partnership with energy giant Shell. It sits within a business park of the same name, owned by Perfection Private, which also holds a small minority stake in the battery project.

Under a “tolling agreement,” Shell Energy will have access to 100 percent of the battery’s capacity over the next 20 years. Construction partner and BESS supplier Fluence will be responsible for ongoing servicing and maintenance of the system.

For Shell Energy Australia, the Rangebank BESS marks its first grid-scale battery investment in Victoria and Shell’s first direct equity investment in a utility-scale BESS globally. It also has a contract with the 60 MW, 120 MWh Riverina battery in NSW.

“It will help support a more resilient power system in Victoria, and a more reliable energy supply for our customers as the energy market continues to evolve,” Shell Energy Australia chief Tony Keeling said on Tuesday.

“This project demonstrates how dispatchable power like battery storage complements renewables, in this case being located in one of Victoria’s fasting growing population corridors.”

For Eku Energy, Rangebank BESS is the third battery it has completed globally, adding to a growing portfolio of more than 50 projects in the pipeline.

In Australia, Eku Energy’s first big battery project was the 150 MW, 150 MWh Hazelwood battery in Victoria, which it co-owns with Engie, the owner of the shuttered coal fired power station, and which was officially opened in 2023.

Last month the company kicked off construction of the biggest battery to be built in the ACT, the 250 megawatt (MW), 500 megawatt hour (MWh) Williamsdale battery that will have enough storage to power one-third of Canberra for two hours in the evening peak.

“Rangebank BESS represents a significant achievement for Eku Energy and further demonstrates our commitment to advancing battery storage solutions worldwide,” said Eku Energy COO Tom Best on Tuesday.

Best says that one of the highlights of developing the Rangebank battery has come via the project’s Community Grants Program, which has supported projects with two local primary schools and a not-for-profit group in the City of Casey.

“We’ve supported Cranbourne Primary School through a program that has helped improve literacy, both in that particular school … [and to be] rolled out more broadly,” Best told Renew Economy on Tuesday.

“We also supported Cranbourne West Primary School in a STEM initiative, which is effectively building a bike that they then raced for 24 hours as part of a human powered vehicle challenge.

“I think that crossover for STEM, using funding to sort of grow stem in schools, is a really nice initiative.”

Another project, in partnership with the local Uniting Church, helped to fund an extra food truck to deliver more free meals to people in need in the area, while a final collaboration with the Melbourne City soccer club is helping to develop local sporting talent.

“It was so nice today, we actually had a teacher, who brought one of the bikes … that’s been built out to the site today, along with the students that were racing,” Best says.

“They’ve just been so appreciative of the funding and, you know, such big advocates for what we’re doing. It’s been amazing to see.”

Also at the battery’s launch was Victorian energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio, who welcomed Rangebank’s addition to the state’s legilsated energy storage targets of at least 2.6 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 and 6.3 GW by 2035. 

“The Rangebank battery will have the storage capacity to power the equivalent of 80,000 Victorian homes for an hour during peak periods,” D’Ambrosio said on Tuesday.

“Our nation-leading renewable energy storage targets provide certainty and underpin confidence as we deliver the infrastructure our state needs to continue to drive us forward.”