South Australia – widely regarded as the world’s most advanced renewable grid with wind and solar accounting for 72 per cent of local demand over the last year – has added a seventh big battery, with another seven to join soon as they complete construction.
The 100 MW, 200 MWh Mannum battery, owned by Epic Energy, entered the Australian Energy Market Operator’s grid management system this week, according to GPE NEMLog’s Geoff Eldridge, which means it can now work its way through the commissioning process.
The Mannum battery – using e-Storage technology – is part of a growing solar and battery complex near the Riverlands town of the same name, and around 90 kms east of Adelaide.
It will join the recently commissioned Blyth battery, and the existing fleet comprising the original Tesla big battery at Hornsdale, Dalrymple North, Torrens Island, Lake Bonney and Tailem Bend batteries.
Another eight big battery projects are already under construction – at Templers, Clements Gap, Hallett, Limestone Coast, Bungama, Solar River and Summerfield. At least another 20 are in the pipeline.
South Australia has a target of reaching 100 per cent net renewables by 2027, and its high share of variable renewables, and the support of its rapidly growing battery fleet, and its excellent reliability since the infamous 2016 blackout, has caught the eye of the energy industry around the world.
This is particularly the case after the blackout in Spain and Portugal last month, where authorities are still looking for a cause of the significant oscillations that led to the loss of generation.
The lack of battery storage left the grid operators with little capacity to respond to the shocks, and the reliability and stability of the South Australia grid, and other Australian states – despite the “staggering” number of unplanned coal unit outages over the last summer – is sure to be a focus of attention.
See Renew Economy’s Big Battery Storage Map of Australia for more information.
