[LINK] Big battery to be built without government aid in market first

[Stephen Loosley]

Big $300m battery to be built without government aid in market first

By Peter Hannam  July 5, 2021 https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/big-300m-battery-to-be-built-without-government-aid-in-market-first-20210705-p586z6.html


Victoria will get Australia’s first grid-scale battery built without government support by the end of 2022, marking what its proponent says is a tipping point in the electricity sector as storage prices tumble.

Lumea, the commercial arm of TransGrid, began taking expressions of interest on Monday for a giant 300-megawatt battery to be built at its Deer Park substation, west of Melbourne.

Lumea’s head of infrastructure, Nigel Buchanan, said the array of lithium-ion batteries would be able to supply 580 megawatt hours of electricity, enough to power about 1 million homes for half an hour before needing to be recharged.

It would come online in 12 to 18 months at a cost of $270 million to $300 million. In a first, the venture would be fully financed by the private sector.

“This is a tipping point in the market for us,” Mr Buchanan said, adding Lumea was responding to “step changes” in the past year in both the technology development and prices of batteries.

“We see the evolution of batteries across all states continuing,” he said.

NSW is among the regions Lumea is looking to increase storage in addition to the $61.9 million 50-megawatt battery planned for its Wallgrove substation in Sydney’s west.

Plans for the Deer Park battery come eight months after the Victorian government announced plans for a 300-megawatt large-scale battery for Geelong to be operating from this November. The government’s plan to draw half of the state’s power from renewable energy by 2030 will likely require a large increase of energy storage options.

Other major battery projects are in the works, including Australia’s first so-called big battery – the 100-megawatt Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia commissioned in December 2017.

According to the Clean Energy Council, 600 megawatts of new battery capacity in Australia gained financial approval in the first quarter of 2021 alone. That was roughly equivalent to the 660-megawatt gas-fired peaker plant the Morrison government plans for a site at Kurri Kurri in the NSW Hunter Valley, the viability of which will be challenged as more big batteries are built.

Victoria has a target to reach a 50 per cent share of renewable energy by 2030, a target that will likely need more storage options.

Bruce Mountain, director of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre, said Lumea’s declaration that its battery could proceed without the support of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency or other government bodies was more proof the technology “continues to surprise on the upside”.

“Batteries have been coming along in leaps and bounds,” Professor Mountain said. “It’s been very pleasing to see all these developments.”

While the early market for batteries has been dominated by the supply of frequency controls and other so-called ancillary services, those opportunities will diminish at least until the next coal-fired power plant closes, he said.

Rather, the main market opportunity for batteries will be to take advantage of tapping low-cost electricity and then releasing it during higher-cost periods.

The introduction of five-minute settlement periods within the National Electricity Market in October to replace the current 30-minute period also means “there will be plenty of arbitrage to go around” for suppliers such as battery owners, Professor Mountain said.

Lily D’Ambrosio, Victoria’s Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, welcomed Lumea’s decision.

“It’s great to see the energy industry expanding battery storage with projects like this boosting Victoria’s energy reliability and affordability, taking full advantage of Victoria’s boom in renewable energy generation,” Ms D’Ambrosio said.

“Our policies have seen the share of renewable generation in Victoria more than double, reducing electricity emissions by over 30 per cent and positioning Victoria as the leader in clean energy jobs in Australia.“

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