Two battery systems capable of delivering up to two megawatts of power will be trialed in Carnarvon, Western Australia.
Announced yesterday by WA Energy Minister Mike Nahan, the partnership between Horizon Power and China’s Lishen Power would examine strategies for meeting energy demand rapidly at a lower cost through the use of batteries.
“The use of the battery storage units means that the cost of providing spinning reserve to supply electrical power for Carnarvon will be significantly reduced as we will be using stored battery power rather than diesel to provide the reserve energy,” said Dr. Nahan.
“This is good news for taxpayers as the cost of power in regional WA is heavily subsidised by the State Government.”
The two systems will be housed in sea shipping containers at Horizon Power’s 17 MW Mungullah Power Station in Carnarvon, with other Horizon Power facilities also being considered. The $77 million power station, which commenced operations last year, utilises both diesel and gas generators.
Knowledge gleaned from the trial will then be applied to renewable energy systems – such as solar power and wind farms.
A related media statement says Carnarvon has one of the highest distributed renewable energy generation levels of all of Horizon’s islanded networks. Carnarvon’s average daily load of 6 MW is in part supplied by 121 individual installations of solar panels with a collective 1.3 MW in capacity.
According to Energy Matters, there are currently 208 solar installations in Carnarvon (postcode 6701), totaling 2693.47 kW of capacity; however, that also includes South and East Carnarvon. The area receives solar irradiation levels of around 5.99 kilowatt hours per square metre daily.
The Carnarvon project isn’t the only largish battery system trial occurring in Western Australia. In March this year, it was announced solar + storage trials would occur at Alkimos Beach, a new housing estate north of Perth. In June, another new housing estate jumped on the energy storage bandwagon – White Gum Valley.
Western Australia is becoming increasingly battery-friendly. Last week, Dr. Nahan announced battery storage and electric vehicle (EV) systems will be permitted to export support surplus electricity to the mains grid from the beginning of December this year.
