“The only one in Australia:” First of its kind eight-hour battery with rapid charging formally opened

A first of its kind eight-hour battery, with special permission to charge in half the time, has been formally opened in the south-west of NSW, one of the first of nearly 100 renewable and storage projects benefitting from state and federal underwriting schemes.

The 50 megawatt (MW) and 400 megawatt hour (MWh) Limondale battery was the first project to win a long duration tender, an underwriting mechanism that had been expected to be dominated by pumped hydro.

But it won on lower costs and the success of this and other eight-hour batteries has helped change much of the thinking about storage in Australia’s main grids, relegating pumped hydro other technologies that are being hit hard by higher civil construction costs to “deep” and “seasonal” storage.

The Limondale battery – near Balranald and next to the 314 MW solar farm of the same name – has been delivered by German energy giant RWE, using 144 Tesla Megapacks. It has already been commissioned, as we reported here.

“It’s exciting to cut the ribbon on this Australian-first battery, which will get more renewable energy into the grid, placing downward pressure on bills,” said NSW minister for Energy and Climate Change, Penny Sharpe.

“Batteries like this one mean we don’t waste an electron of solar and can power the state with renewables.”

It is believed to be the first battery in Australia that has been allowed “asymmetric” registrations – meaning it is permitted to charge at a rate of 100 MW, although its discharge is limited to 50 MW as per the requirements of the long duration storage contract.

“The battery must be registered as an eight hour dispatchable asset on the ground,” Tesla’s head of development Shane Bannister told the Australian Energy Week forum in Melbourne on Wednesday.

“The good thing is it doesn’t say anything about how it needs to be registered to the charge side, so for Limondale it’s an asymmetrical registration with AEMO, which I’m pretty sure is the only one in Australia.

“So it’s registered at 50 MW discharge and 100 MW from the charge side, that’s pretty unique, it allows that asset to now charge at full power, being 100 megawatts for four hours.

“Now, if you’re wondering why that’s important, more often than not, even with the suppression of the (solar) duck curve that we’ve seen from the home battery subsidy scheme and from other utility scale factors, that window of when you really want to charge your asset is kind of four hours long.”

See this story for a further explanation: What’s the difference between a four-hour battery and an eight-hour battery? Not a lot, it turns out

RWE CEO Daniel Belton described the asset as “one of Australia’s most significant battery storage projects” and a “major step forward for long-duration energy storage” in the country’s main grid.

“Limondale BESS strengthens grid stability, supports energy security and enables greater integration and efficient use of renewable energy across the network,” he said.

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