Another huge battery has plugged into the electrical energy grid to help a state with the nation’s largest penetration of rooftop photo voltaic.
Built inside 18 months and formally opened in South Australia on Tuesday, AGL Energy’s first operational grid-scale battery covers an space the scale of the Adelaide oval.
Energy and Mining Minister Tom Koutsantonis informed AAP the Torrens Island undertaking vindicated a choice to pioneer huge battery know-how for a safe electrical energy provide.
“That decision was at the time derided as little more than a tourist attraction, akin to the Big Banana or Big Pineapple, but it has set a template that is now emulated around the world,” he stated.
Scott Morrison, then treasurer, had mocked the state’s first huge battery – the world’s first – that was constructed at Hornsdale.
More than 70 per cent of South Australia’s electrical energy is equipped by renewables.
“We want this to grow as we reduce dependence on expensive gas and unreliable coal power,” Mr Koutsantonis stated.
Instead of turning off individuals’s residence photo voltaic power methods when there may be an extra of provide, an enormous battery can obtain and retailer that low-cost power as a substitute of losing it.
“We can then supply energy after the sun goes down, potentially putting downward pressure on price,” Mr Koutsantonis stated.
Opening the 250-megawatt battery with the minister, CEO Damien Nicks stated AGL was taking part in its half in Australia’s power transition.
“Importantly, this milestone demonstrates how we can make the most of our grid connections, land and people to redevelop our thermal generation sites into industrial energy hubs,” he stated.
The Torrens Island huge battery can present sufficient electrical energy to energy 75,000 properties for one hour, with the choice to increase the period to 4 hours with a future growth.
There are 218 battery cupboards housing greater than 6000 battery modules.
It can reply to the necessities of the SA electrical energy grid in milliseconds by offering extra capability and frequency management when gasoline vegetation cannot accomplish that.
Once the location of South Australia’s largest energy plant, the final models of the outdated gasoline generator are scheduled to shut in mid-2026.
And whereas different states may have huge batteries on the websites of former fossil gasoline energy stations, Torrens Island will use a mixture of power storage and new gasoline technology.
“On this very site in the past four years, we have announced the closure of a thermal power station, built a flexible peaking plant and commissioned the second largest battery in Australia,” he stated.
The “peaker” or rapid-start gasoline generator generally known as the Barker Inlet Power Station will function alongside the large battery and may hearth up inside minutes to satisfy morning and night demand.
“This is the transition in action,” Mr Nicks stated.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
