Graph of the Day: UQ Tesla battery revenue continues to exceed expectations

Back in May of this year, RenewEconomy reported that a 1.1MW/2.15MWh Tesla Powerpack battery system installed at the University of Queensland had saved the UQ almost $74,000 on electricity costs in just three months, and not just by storing cheap solar power.

According to data on the first quarter of operation for the $2.05 million battery system, had generated $73,938 in value during Q1 2020, not just by storing energy when grid prices were low and discharging when they were high, but also – in fact, mostly – by helping to balance the grid, including jumping to attention when major coal plants failed.

This week on LinkedIn, UQ’s energy and sustainability lead and project director of the university’s Warwick Solar Farm, Andrew Wilson, has released the battery project’s latest arbitrage figures, which show that it continues to exceed expectations.

According to Wilson and the accompanying charts, above and below, September has delivered the Powerpack battery system’s second highest revenue to date (after January). But as Wilson notes, there’s more to the story.

“Three of the last nine months have had a negative average charge price, whilst in September the average spread was almost three times the time-weighted QLD RPP for the month. Utilisation (measured as daily charge + discharge MWh) has also climbed to its highest level yet,” Wilson writes.

“What does this mean overall? The battery is benefiting from more frequent and more volatile opportunities for arbitrage, despite the fact that flat prices in the region are the lowest they have been for a long time,” Wilson said.

“Revenue from arbitrage continues to exceed our business case expectations, and helps to demonstrate a clear market for energy storage in helping to manage intraday pricing volatility,”