Contractor announced for biggest battery installation in Western Australia grid

The Western Australia government has announced the winning contractor for the first big battery to be built on the state’s main grid, and the biggest in the state so far.

Premier Mark McGowan and energy minister Bill Johnston said the state-owned utility Synergy had awarded NHOA Australian the $155 million contract to deliver the 100MW/2000MWh battery, which will be built at the site of the decommissioned Kwinana fired power station.

Construction will begin next month and the battery should be operational by end of 2022, with its primary purpose being to help smooth out the growing amount of renewables, with protection of gas and coal fired generators – currently forced to ramp beyond their limits – top of mind.

The battery will be able to store excess rooftop solar energy during the day, when demand is low, and discharge electricity rapidly during the afternoon and evening peak, when the ramping is usually imposed on the legacy fossil fuel generators.

One in three WA households already have rooftop solar panels, and this is expected to rise to 50 per cent by 2030.

“This battery is crucial to WA’s sustainable energy future and a key part of the Distributed Energy Resources Roadmap,” McGowan said in a statement.

“There is a rapid energy transformation happening and energy storage systems such as this battery will play a key role in providing better energy outcomes for Western Australian households and businesses.”

Johnston said the battery will support more renewables to join the grid, and described the Italian-based NHOA as “one of the world’s top utility-scale energy storage organisations, having installed batteries and microgrids in 26 countries.”

The Belmont-based GenusPlus has won a $50 million sub-contracting mandate. The WA Government has committed $140 million towards the big battery project, with the Commonwealth Government contributing $15 million.

Curiously, NHOA – previously known as Engie EPS, and now majority owned by the Taiwan Cement Corp – announced the contract earlier this month, although at the time it described the 200MWh contract as being for an “as-yet undisclosed location for an unnamed customer … with completion expected by the end of 2022.

WA’s main grid, which already features dozens of “community-based batteries” of around 500kWh each to absorb the growing amounts of rooftop solar, is likely to see another big battery built at Wagerup, in the state’s south, by Alinta Energy.

Alinta is already operating the Mt Newman big battery, (pictured above) which as 35MW/12MWh is already proving highly successful at lifting reliability, delivering profits and cutting emissions.

At least three more big batteries are planned by Alinta, Fortescue Mines and Rio Tinto in the Pilbara region to host more renewables.