New 1,660 megawatt-hour battery kicks off commercial operations, including “virtual tolling” deal

One of the largest four-hour battery projects to be added to Australia’s main grid has announced the start of commercial operations, just weeks after reaching full output on the New South Wales grid.

Melbourne headquartered battery developer Akaysha Energy said on Tuesday that its 415 megawatt (MW) and 1,660 megawatt-hour (MWh) Orana battery energy storage system (BESS), north-east of Wellington, has reached its final development milestone, with the commencement of commercial operations.

The Orana BESS has a virtual tolling agreement (VTA) with big-three utility EnergyAustralia for 200MW of capacity, which will enable the gentailer to notionally ‘charge’ and ‘discharge’ a 200MW ‘virtual battery’ within pre-agreed bidding parameters, independent of the physical operation of the battery.

The big battery was also one of the first, and the biggest at the time, to receive an underwriting agreement from a NSW tender as part of the state’s renewable infrastructure roadmap.

Orana is the third – and so far the biggest – battery project to be completed by Akaysha since it emerged as the surprise winner of a tender to build the country’s most powerful battery – the Waratah Super Battery at the site of the shuttered Munmorah coal fired power station on the NSW central coast.

At the start of the month, Akaysha confirmed that commissioning of Orana was complete, making the BESS visible in the NEM, but had not yet reached commercial operations date (COD).

“COD is a separate milestone and will follow once the final regulatory, market and contractual requirements are completed. We will provide another update when this is reached,” a spokesperson said at the time.

Tony Fullelove, managing director of development and delivery at Akaysha Energy, says the COD milestone for the Orana battery will allow more renewable energy to be integrated into the NSW electricity system.

“The virtual tolling agreement for the Orana BESS gives EnergyAustralia access to the market benefits of large-scale battery storage, including fast-response capacity and greater flexibility,” Fullelove said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Our virtual tolling agreement with Akaysha gives us access to a large-scale battery’s firming capability and the ability to soak up renewable energy that would otherwise be wasted, without owning or operating the asset ourselves,” said Daniel Nugent, trading & transition executive at EnergyAustralia.

“As part of a portfolio mix, it’s a model that helps get batteries financed and built and gets more storage into the market sooner.”

Official commercial operation of the Orana BESS also brings Akaysha Energy’s total operational battery energy storage capacity to over 4 gigawatt-hours (GWh).

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