Plans unveiled for biggest battery storage system in Victoria

The small renewable and battery storage developer Maoneng has unveiled plans for a 240MW/480MWh big battery in Victoria, which would be the biggest battery energy storage system in the state – and the country – if it is built on schedule.

The Mornington big battery will be a standalone facility located next to AusNet’s Tyabb substation, about 67km east of Melbourne on the Mornington Peninsula, where Maoneng says there are fluctuations in demand for electricity, mostly due to seasonal tourism.

If built by the end of 2022, as advertised, it would overtake the 300MW/450MWh Victoria Big Battery, now being built by Neoen near Geelong, as the biggest in the state, and the country, to date.

But there are also many other battery projects in the pipeline in Victoria that would trump the Mornington project, including proposals at Loy Yang by AGL, the Latrobe Valley by Tilt, and at Yallourn by EnergyAustralia. And there are other big projects around the country, although the timeline for most of them remains uncertain.

See RenewEconomy’s Big Battery Storage Map of Australia for more details.

Maoneng has also recently submitted plans for a 225MW/450MWh big battery at Gould Creek near Adelaide in South Australia, and in 2019 announced a contract with AGL to build 200MW/400MWh of battery storage in NSW.

Little has been seen of those plans for AGL since then, although the planning documents filed for the Mornington battery says that these large-scale batteries will be delivered between 2023 and 2028.

The company also owns a minority stake in the 200MW Sunraysia solar farm in NSW, where a 50MW/100MWh battery – part of the AGL contract – is supposed to be built.

“A vital part of the Victorian government’s Renewable Energy Action Plan is the integration of energy storage,” Maoneng’s co-founder and CEO Morris Zhou said in a statement.

“As Australia’s electricity grid makes increasing use of renewable generation, we see a bright future for BESS projects.

“They provide numerous benefits by operating on a commercial basis to deliver long-term sustainable outcomes that support all stakeholders – from local businesses and communities to the state government, regulators and investors.”

The company says it is currently conducting a competitive tender process to select an appropriately experienced contractor, and says that completion is expected in late 2022.

The planning document says that the site is around 9 hectares and each battery storage bank will have a storage capacity of between 2 – 4MWh, depending on the final battery type selected.