Edify trucks in 100 Tesla Megapacks for final leg of landmark battery project

One hundred Tesla Megapack batteries have arrived in the proposed Murray River renewable energy zone, where they will be craned into place to create a landmark battery storage project in the state of Victoria.

The $400 million Koorangie battery will be sized at 185 megawatts (MW) and 370 megawatt hours (MWh) and will be tucked in next to Edify Energy’s 50 MW Gannawarra solar farm and its existing 25MW / 50MWh battery.

The Koorangie battery is being developed by Edify but is now owned by the Italian energy infrastructure investor Sostoneo, and will feature new grid forming inverter technology and a landmark 20-year contract to provide that service to the Australian Energy Market Operator.

The battery – located in what was once known as Victoria’s “rhombus of regret”, an area chock full of wind and solar projects all served by a particularly weak part of the grid – was originally going to be half the size.

But with $119 million from Victoria’s Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) Fund, by the time Sostoneo stepped in to make its first big Australian investment last year, it had doubled in size to today’s 185 MW / 370 MWh.

In effect, the battery will be able to do two things at once: it can do the occasional job of a grid-forming inverter, which is what AEMO wants, and provide frequency control and energy arbitrage at the same time. It also has a long term contract with Shell Energy.

The result of the beefed up size and the AEMO, Shell and Victoria government deals, is that the Koorangie battery will allow the grid around the Murray River area to host 300 MW more wind and solar energy, which will mean less curtailment of existing farms and potentially new projects allowed to connect. 

Funders for the project included BNP Paribas, DNB and CBA, who kicked in the remaining $281 million to get the project off the ground. 

“Koorangie is a cutting-edge facility that will help Victoria hit our energy storage targets and support our transition to renewable energy by providing stability to our energy grid,” said state energy and resources minister Lily D’Ambrosio, who was at the site on Wednesday.

“Projects like Koorangie are helping us move away from expensive fossil fuels and onto safer, affordable and more reliable renewable energy.”

The Koorangie project is one of 12 projects in which the Victoria government invested its $480 million REZ fund in to fix capacity constraints and strengthen and modernise the state’s grid.

The state has big renewables targets as well: its legislated energy storage target is a minimum of 2.6 GW by 2030 and 6.3 GW by 2035.

“With the Megapacks craned into place at Koorangie, we are on track bring into operation our 12^thnew energy infrastructure project,” Edify CEO John Cole said.

“We take pride in our track record of successfully structuring, designing and building pioneering clean energy projects.  We believe in innovation, challenging the norm and long-term relationships.  This is our third project in the Gannawarra Shire.  We welcome and embrace the local support the project receives.”