First big battery in world’s biggest isolated grid charges up for first time

The Western Australian South-West Interconnected System, the world’s most isolated grid at a multi-gigawatt scale, finally has its first big battery on line, charging up for what appears to be the first time on Tuesday.

The Kwinana energy storage system, built at the site of a shuttered gas fired power station in the industrial precinct south of Perth, is running about six months behind schedule, but was finally registered in late April and formally opened earlier this month.

It now appears to be running through the first stages of its commissioning process, injecting up to 4MW of capacity into the grid at various times on Tuesday afternoon.

The 100MW/200MWh is the first big battery, indeed the first storage of any type in the state’s main grid, which may seem surprising given that the state is already running at an average 35 per cent wind and solar over the last year, more than 42 per cent over summer, and at instantaneous levels of more than 80 per cent.

Up to now, the gaps have been filled by fossil fuel plants, but as the ageing coal units prepare to shut down, and as gas generation becomes every more expensive, batteries are being built because they are cheaper, cleaner and more flexible, and better suited to respond to changes in demand and wind and solar output.

The Kwinana battery is the first of a number of big battery projects planned by the state owned utility Synergy and its government owner. Kwinana itself will see a second stage battery with four hours storage – 200MW and 800MWh – that will be designed to shift more wind and solar output into times of peak demand.

An even bigger battery – 500MW and 2000MWh – is being planned for the town of Collie, currently the site of the last state-owned coal generators that are due to be closed by the end of the decade.

That battery will play a critical role as the state accelerates its transition to a renewables grid potentially many times its current capacity as the government looks at opportunities to become a green industrial hub with demand for green electricity that would require more than 50GW of wind, solar and storage.

The Kwinana battery has been delivered by NHOA Energy, which is also building Neoen’s 200MW and 400MWh Blyth battery in South Australia that will partner with the new Goyder wind farm to deliver 24/7 renewable power to BHP’s massive Olympic Dam mine.