Two new big batteries approved, including four-hour BESS and another near Hazelwood

Victoria’s planning department has given the green light to two new big batteries for the state: a four hour battery proposed by Akaysha Energy and a two project proposed for coal country in the Latrobe Valley.

The four-hour “Elaine” big battery, which will be located 5km from the town of the same name about an hour’s drive west of Melbourne, was originally designed as a 200MW, 800MWh facility but has since been expanded to 311MW and 1244 MWh.

Akaysha is already building two even bigger batteries. Last week was named as one of the winners of the country’s biggest tender for firm capacity, with its proposal to build a 415MW, four hour battery (1660MWh) at Orana in the central west of New South Wales.

The company is also building the 850MW, 1680MWh Waratah Super battery at the site of the shuttered Munmorah coal fired power station, which will act as a kind of giant “shock absorber” for the grid by increasing capacity on key transmission lines.

The Elaine BESS will be located at a site adjacent to an existing terminal station, reducing the need for additional high voltage power lines and visual impacts. It is also near to part of Atmos Renewables’ 228MW Lal Lal wind farm.

With a planning permit now granted, the Elaine battery energy storage system (BESS) will become one of the largest in Victoria and one of the first with four hours of storage  – a feature Akaysha said last week would rapidly become the “new normal” for batteries in the bid to replace coal and soak up solar.

The second big battery to win planning permit approval over the past week is Flow Power’s Bennett’s Creek project in Hazelwood North, in Victoria’s Gippsland region, not far from the newly opened Hazelwood battery at the site of the shuttered coal plant of the same name.

The 100MW/200MWh BESS is Flow Power’s first “battery only” project, which it aims to start works on in early 2024. The project will include the installation of a new 66 kV transmission line connection to the existing Morwell Terminal Substation.

According to Flow Power’s website, the Bennett’s Creek facility will be topped up with energy when renewable generation is high and “quickly discharge” when needed to help reduce electricity prices and the need for more fossil fuel generation.

“The battery will provide energy supply for Flow Power’s growing Victorian customer base as a way to firm their renewable energy offtake,” the company says.

Both batteries are likely to bid into the capacity auctions being held by the Victorian and federal governments, with an initial 600MW (with average four hours storage) being sought in Victoria and South Australia, but with a total of 9GW being sought around the country in auctions to be held by 2027.