Australian Capital Territory federal government 'spends' in 250MW battery project

• The state government of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) will certainly pledge financing towards a battery energy storage system (BESS) rollout in its 2022-2023 budget plan to be revealed 2 August.

The government's procurement process is already open for the Big Canberra Battery, a three-stage energy storage space project where it aims to get a 250MW grid-connected BESS developed, complied with by smaller systems at government structures and afterwards a set of 'neighbourhood batteries' for residential communities.

Although an announcement today from the office of ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr did not disclose the amount of investment, different reports in neighborhood media claimed the state government will certainly commit around A$ 850,000 (US$ 586,000) first financing from the spending plan to get the project started.

The project was first revealed in a previous budget for 2020-2021, with the ACT government promising to spend a total of A$ 100 million in the project over 5 years.

" The ACT is leading the nation on climate action. We are already powered by 100% renewable electrical energy, and also the next step in our strategy to reduce emissions as well as give sustainable energy to Canberra households is the shipment of one of the largest battery storage systems in the Southern Hemisphere," Barr claimed, with the ACT targeting net zero emissions by 2045.

The government lately likewise released a zero-emissions vehicles plan for the state, which Barr previously admitted would enhance need for power considerably as electrification progressed.

The batteries will certainly reduce load on the power network and also enable more ACT citizens to put solar PV on their roof coverings, the federal government declaration kept in mind, with the first 250MW stream straight sustaining the power network. In Stream 2, battery storage at government buildings in 14 sites will certainly reduce their grid power usage and also the network of neighbourhood batteries will certainly do the very same for households in Stream 3.

Procurement processes for the very first two streams are awaiting launch as well as are anticipated to be open for industry to participate from August.

The government had formerly sought input from stakeholders, market as well as experts last year on the Canberra Big Battery project, accepting views on possible areas, applications as well as other preparation aspects.

Policymakers also dealt with the Australian National University (ANU) to shape strategies of how the batteries can function. Sector stakeholders were invited to take part in workshops held with ANU and also according to the government, the high variety of individuals, from 42 organisations as well as their degree of involvement suggested there is solid assistance for the programme.

Regular readers of Energy-Storage. news will recall that a group from ANU wrote a short article for our quarterly technological journal PV Tech Power on the benefits of neighbourhood battery storage, as well as existing technological and economic challenges they face, based on socio-techno-economic research studies.

Commissioning is expected to occur throughout 2023-2024 for the ACT's new fleet.

Two large-scale battery storage space projects are currently in building and construction in the ACT after their developers were granted contracts in 2020 via a federal government renewable energy procurement.

Through the ACT's fifth Renewables Reverse Auction, designers of 2 large-scale wind farms were granted lasting contracts at under A$ 50/MWh (US$ 36/MWh) to build battery storage in the state.

French designer Neoen is building a 100MW/200MWh BESS along with its Goyder South renewables hub which includes wind, solar PV as well as batteries. The firm, behind some of Australia's biggest battery projects to day, signed another offtake agreement for the project with significant energy generator-retailer AGL in April.

The various other granted project would see a 10MW/20MWh BESS developed by developer GPG-- a subsidiary of worldwide renewables developer Naturgy-- together with the firm's new Berrybank Wind Farm.

Interestingly, neither firm's wind farm is itself in the ACT. Goyder South is in South Australia and also Berrybank remains in Victoria, yet through contracts with the ACT federal government will certainly supply power there as well as their battery systems provide load management as well as grid services abilities to the territory additionally.

Reconfiguring energy markets for the age of energy storage

In related news, today the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) claimed it will certainly assist fund a research study into the assimilation of energy storage into energy markets.

The national agency will certainly fund A$ 495,000 of the complete A$ 1.18 million anticipated price of Monash University's research, discovering alternate energy market creates that might encourage financial investment right into energy storage and ensure Australia gets the energy storage it requires to change from centralised fossil fuel generation to renewable and also distributed energy.

Examples include formulating a place market for inertia, an application energy storage can supply which ARENA has been eager to likewise explore from a technical level, assisting to fund demo battery projects that offer synthetic inertia to the network with sophisticated inverter technologies

" As typical generation retires, we require storage to play a larger duty in tightening and also stabilizing our electrical power system," ARENA chief executive officer Darren Miller stated, calling financial investment in everything from large-scale pumped hydro and BESS to small-scale batteries as "vital to proceed Australia's uptake of variable renewable energy into the grid".

The ARENA funding will certainly most likely to Monash Energy Institute's Grid Innovation Hub at the university.

" For a successful transition to a reduced carbon energy future, energy markets have to mirror the amount of all the solutions contemporary technology provides," Grid Innovation Hub chairman Tony Marxsen claimed.

" Services from battery storage are not valued clearly presently, as well as this interesting study will certainly disclose ways in which markets can better reflect their value to guide investment."