“Power on:” Queensland flicks the switch on its first publicly owned big battery

Queensland has commissioned its first publicly owned big battery, with the 100MW/200MWh Chinchilla Battery commencing commercial operations at its site next to the largest remaining coal plant in Australia, Kogan Creek.

State-owned generator CS Energy announced the milestone on LinkedIn on Friday, as the first completed project at its Kogan Clean Energy Hub in Queensland’s Western Downs, which also proposes to produce green hydrogen.

State energy minister Mick de Brenni also marked the occasion on his own socials. “Power: on he said. “We’re converting coal fired power stations across Queensland to charge up our renewable energy future.”

The $150 million battery connected to the grid last November and has been working its way through various “hold points” since then – including reaching peak discharge of 93 MW in May, when it also successfully charged at its peak rate – 100 MW – for nearly an hour, soaking up excess solar before injecting it back into the grid in the early evening peak.

“The Chinchilla Battery underwent a comprehensive commissioning program to test it under a range of operating conditions, ensuring it operates safely and reliably,” CS Energy said on Friday.

“Getting the battery to this stage has taken a large effort from many people across our business – from the team at site who will operate and maintain the asset to our traders in Brisbane who will dispatch its output into the grid.”

The Tesla Megapack-based Chinchilla battery is the third and biggest to begin operating in the Queensland grid, following the delivery of the 75 MW, 150 MWh Wandoan and the 50 MW, 100 MWh Bouldercombe batteries.

Neoen’s Western Downs battery will soon beat it, though, once it works through commissioning to its full 270 MW and 540 MWh capabilities. The energisation of the battery’s substation was ticked off “ahead of schedule” in June.

Energy storage projects coming soon to the Sunshine State include big batteries at the Tarong, Swanbank and Stanwell coal power sites, as well as Brendale and Linda Park, and a number of others poised to begin construction, and dozens more in the pipeline.