New Queensland big battery now fully operational five months ahead of schedule

Akaysha Energy has announced the completion of its second big battery, and its second in Queensland, that it says has been delivered five months ahead of schedule.

The company announced on Tuesday that the 205 megawatt (MW), 410 megawatt hour (MWh) Brendale battery, in the outskirts of Brisbane, is now fully operational and will play a key role in the operation of the state’s grid.

It is Akaysha Energy’s second completed battery project, following the delivery a month ago of the smaller 155 MW, 298 MWh Ulinda Park battery in Queensland’s Western Downs region that will soon be upsized to 350 MW and 1,070 MWh after the company won a recent Capacity Investment Scheme tender.

Akaysha has grabbed most of its headlines in recent months because of what it described as the “catastrophic” failure of a transformer at the country’s most powerful battery, the 850 MW, 1680 MWh Waratah Super Battery in NSW.

That incident in mid-October, which will require a new transformer to be built, occurred in the final hours of testing and prevented the completion of what would have been the company’s first battery project.

Waratah is currently operating at limited capacity, and delivering just half of its contract with the NSW government, leading to a heavy loss of revenues from its major contract.

The Waratah and Ulinda Park projects were both delivered with battery equipment supplied by the now collapsed US provider Powin, and Brendale is the first to be delivered with Tesla Megapack 2 battery storage units.

“Bringing the Brendale BESS online ahead of schedule is a massive achievement for the entire team,” Akaysha CEO Nick Carter said in a statement.

“The functionality of the BESS, combined with the Guvnor offtake agreement, will ensure consumers have reliable energy when they need it, at an affordable price.”

The Brendale battery features grid-forming inverters which allow the facility to play a key role in the provision of critical grid services such as inertia and system strength. The off take with Gunvor is a battery revenue swap deal and a mix of contracted and merchant exposure.

The battery was delivered by Consolidated Power Projects, and also used Wilson Transformers, which has supplied its other projects. The battery connects directly to the South Pine substation in Brisbane’s outer Northern suburbs.

Akaysha Energy is also building the 415 MW, 1660 MWh Orana battery in the central west region of NSW, as well as the 315 MW, 1244 MWh Elaine battery in Victoria, where it has a long term “virtual tolling” off-take deal with Snowy Hydro. The company has at least another half a dozen battery projects in development in Australia.

A spokesperson said there is no update on the status of the Waratah battery repairs and completion date, currently schedule for May.

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

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