Equis wins connection deal for a 4 hour battery in Queensland

Another four hour battery is set to be looped into the Queensland grid, with the Lower Wonga installation the latest to wring a connection agreement from the state transmission company.

The four hour, 200 megawatt (MW) Lower Wonga battery energy storage system (BESS) is in Woolooga, near Gympie and the Sunshine Coast, and will cost $450 million, Equis says. 

The company is seeing market interest for both two- and four-hour batteries and has permission to build a battery at that maximum end of capacity. However, the final storage duration will depend on what kind of offtake agreements the company manages to secure, an Equis spokesperson says.

The BESS will be connected to Queensland’s grid via the 275kV Woolooga substation. Construction will start this year and begin operations in 2026. 

The project will create about 115 full-time jobs during construction and allow for more solar and wind energy to be integrated into the grid while offering grid stability services. 

“Making the transition from fossil fuels to ‘baseload’ renewables, the ability to store and dispatch energy will play a key support role to provide rapid-response services to grid contingency events such as outages or heat waves,” says Equis Australia investment director Roby Camagong.

“Grid-scale battery storage fills this key short-term role.”

An Equis spokesperson says the location was chosen for the availability of suitable land near a substation, and grid connection capacity.

The new BESS is close to a range of renewable projects that are in various stages of construction and development. The biggest is the 2 gigawatt (GW) Borumba pumped hydro project, although that is still in the earliest stages of planning. 

There are also some 1.6 GW of wind, solar and battery storage either proposed or operating in the area as well. 

Lightsourcebp owns the development rights to the ​​Lower Wonga 350 MW solar farm and BESS. It was originally given planning approval in 2017, when the now-deregistered SolarQ pitched the Gympie Energy Hub, a 1 GW solar farm and 4,000MWh / 8,00MW battery. That project fell over and the pieces bought by ligthsourcebp.

Lightsourbp also has the operational Woolooga 214MWp solar project nearby and is building a 200MW / 400MWh BESS to support it. 

The 120 MW Munna Creek solar farm is under construction.

To the west are the 453 MW Coopers Gap wind farm and proposed 500 MW Tarong West project which is due to be online in 2026. 

Equis’ other projects include the recently announced 600 MW Jackson North wind farm and 200 MW battery in Woleebee, Queensland, due to hit the grid in 2030, and what could be Australia’s largest battery, the enormous 1.2GW/2.4GWh Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub BESS, part of which is already under construction.

See Renew Economy’s Big Battery Storage Map of Australia for more information.

*This article has been updated to include new comments from Equis Australia.