Second gigawatt scale battery in NSW to start commissioning process at site of shuttered coal plant

AGL Energy’s big battery at Liddell is about to enter the commissioning process, just over two years after the shutting down of the ancient coal fired power station on the same site in the Hunter Valley.

The 500 megawatt (MW), 1,000 megawatt hour (MWh) Liddell battery is the biggest so far in AGL’s growing fleet of big battery projects, although it will soon be overshadowed by its recently announced 500 MW, 2,000 MWh Tomago battery, to be built down the road next to the giant aluminium smelter.

The Liddell battery is the second gigawatt-scale battery to be built in NSW, following the 850 MW, 1680 MWh Waratah Super Battery, which is currently half way through its commissioning process at the site of another shuttered coal fired generator at Munmorah on the Central Coast.

According to GPE NEMLog, the Liddell battery entered the Australian Energy Market Operator’s grid management system this week, meaning it is now registered and ready to begin its testing and commissioning process.

AGL has previously built the 250 MW, 250 MWh Torrens Island battery in South Australia, and the 50 MW, 50 MWh Broken Hill battery. It plans to build or contract at least 3 GW of battery storage in coming years, including a new 500 MW, four hour battery in Queensland, and the planned 400 MW, 1,600 MWh battery at Pottinger in NSW.

It also has numerous off take agreements, some of them known as “virtual tolls” with battery installations at Western Downs, Wandoan, Capital and Dalrymple.

“Our grid-scale battery portfolio can respond to peak demand events in seconds – crucial in a transitioning energy market which is shifting away from baseload thermal generation to variable renewable energy,” CEO Damien Nicks said at the company’s recent results briefing.

“We’re confident that the earnings stream out of (those batteries) will be able to offset any reduction that we could see in both the coal and gas,” Nicks said.

The Waratah battery is acting as a kind of giant “shock absorber” to the grid, is the most powerful battery in the country – and at 850 MW is the biggest unit of any kind ever to be connected to the Australian grid.

It will also be overtaken in terms of storage by the Eraring battery, the 700 MW and 2,800 MWh facility being built ahead of the planned closure of Australia’s biggest coal fired generator at that site, and 275 MW, 2,200 MWh Richmond Valley battery, which will for a time be the country’s biggest eight-hour battery.

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

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