One of Australia’s biggest battery projects seeks green tick for site next to giant Victoria smelter

A UK storage developer that has already landed a federal government contract to build the biggest battery in South Australia is now seeking environmental approvals for an even bigger battery to be sited near the giant Portland smelter in Victoria.

Pacific Green was one of the winners of the federal government’s first battery storage tender under the guise of the Capacity Investment Scheme for its 500 megawatt (MW) and 1500 megawatt hour (MWh) Limestone Coast battery park in South Australia.

It is now seeking approvals under the EPBC Act for an even bigger 1,000 MW, 2,500 MWh battery at the Portland Energy Park, not far from the huge Portland aluminium smelter, one of the country’s biggest consumers of energy.

The battery project – first unveiled early last year – will be built in a series of 250 MW “battery parks”, presumably to allow the project to be built in stages and to have separate grid connection points, as other battery projects are doing.

Pacific Green says the Portland Energy Park will be situated within the industrial zone of Madeira Packet Road, close to the Wannon Water Wastewater Treatment Facility and just three kilometres from the Portland Aluminum smelter.

“The site is ideal for an energy park site as it has direct assess to existing electrical transmisison infrastructure,” it says. “The site has minimal native vegetation and is located in a heavy industrial zone outside the urban settlement areas of Portland.”

If built now, the Portland battery would be easiest the biggest on Australia’s main grid, and the biggest in the country, ahead of the 560 MW, 2240 MWh Collie battery under construction by Neoen in Western Australia.

But it will have some competition for the biggest title. Another battery project at Kemerton, put forward by Chinese solar giant Trina Solar, is looking at a 2,640 MWh facility in an industrial area south of Perth.

Pacific Green says it has a total of 8 GWh of battery storage projects under development in Australia, although it has yet to identify the details of another three projects that appear – according to its web-site – to be located in NSW and Queensland.

In a newly published blog post, Pacific Green Australia managing director Joel Alexander said battery developers are looking to be more strategic in how they plan for connection to the established grid.

Pacific Green’s two current projects, the approved Limestone Coast Energy Park, and the planned Portland Energy Park, are both strategically located near operational grid infrastructure,” he wrote.

“At the Limestone Coast project, our 1.5 GWh battery system will connect straight into the 275 kVA South East Substation adjacent to the site, feeding into the Heywood Interconnector between South Australia and Victoria.

“In essence, the projects are being injected into a critical point in the network, creating a buffer which can mediate under or over supply.”

The project is also located within Located within the proposed Southwest Renewable Energy Zone, where it will be able to provide support to planned and existing onshore wind farms, and the newly declared Southern Ocean Offshore Wind zone, where the first feasibility licence has been issued.

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