The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will jointly fund a new large-scale, grid-connected battery, to be built at TransGrid’s Wallgrove substation in Western Sydney.
According to ARENA’s announcement, the agency will provide up to $11.5 million in funding for the Wallgrove Grid Battery project, with the NSW Government to provide an additional $10 million in funding as part of their $75 million Emerging Energy Program.
TransGrid’s Executive Manager of Strategy, Innovation and Technology, Eva Hanly, said the project will trial the use of a 50MW/75MWh lithium ion battery to provide fast frequency response and synthetic inertia services to the NSW transmission network.
“TransGrid is committed to finding low cost innovative solutions to the emerging challenges of the energy transformation. This will be the first battery in NSW to pilot grid scale synthetic inertia as a network service,” Ms Hanly said.
“It’s a step forward for the NSW grid and the National Electricity Market. This innovation will help accelerate the industry’s transformation to a low-carbon energy system, at a lower cost to customers.”
The Wallgrove Grid Battery will be designed and constructed by Tesla and will be dispatched by Infigen Energy who will trade the battery in the wholesale market and frequency control ancillary services (FCAS) markets.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the project aims to prove large-scale battery storage is ‘the most effective solution’ for managing system inertia as Australia transitions to renewable energy.
“Energy storage is one of the priority technologies under the Australian Government’s first Low Emissions Technology Statement released last month, and ARENA has already played a key role in supporting the commercialisation of battery storage,” Mr Miller continued.
“Large scale batteries have a big role to play in firming and balancing our electricity system as we move towards a future energy mix with higher penetration of renewable energy,” he concluded.
