Broken Hill battery charges up to create local micro-grid, but why was it disabled in the first place?
The Broken Hill big battery has been charged up, stabilising local electricity supply and create a more resilient local micro-grid – but the question remains about why the facility was disabled in the first place.
The 50 MW battery had not operated since the Broken Hill region was isolated from the rest of the grid after storms tore down seven transmission towers just after midnight on July 17.
Transgrid said it had finally reached agreement with AGL for the asset to be switched on, 10 days after thousands of homes and business in the local community started to suffer extensive outages.
On Saturday and Sunday, the battery charged up from the local excess rooftop solar and was standing by to help during the evening demand peaks, and will continue to do so until all the replacement towers are completed.
The single diesel generator is rated at 25 MW but can only produce around 14 MW due to various limitations and Transgrid and Essential Energy have had to rush in a number of small diesel generators to support the grid, and rooftop PV has had to be limited.
The 200 MW Silverton wind farm and the 53 MW Broken Hill solar farm are sitting idle. Their owner, Tilt Renewables, says they are not damaged but cannot generate under their connection rules in the circumstances.
It is not clear why Transgrid required AGL to disable the “islanding” capabilities of the battery, particularly given the ageing nature of the diesel generators that are to be replaced.
The AGL report appears to make clear that the battery would have been able to support the huge wind farm and large solar farm that are located near Broken Hill, and allow them to generate and provide power to the locals.
It has runs on the board in this regard, having successfully operated the Dalrymple North battery in South Australia, which is capable of supporting a micro-grid on the Yorke Peninsula.
Both the Silverton wind farm and the Broken Hill solar farm have not been operating since the transmission line went down 10 days ago. But the AGL report suggests they could have been providing power if the battery was properly enabled.