New South Wales (NSW) has given the green light for constructing the biggest battery in the southern hemisphere.
The Waratah Super Battery
The 850-megawatt Waratah Super Battery will serve as a “shock absorber” to maintain a reliable grid during natural disasters like bushfires and other events, like power outages. Akaysha Energy will be constructing the battery and it will be built on the Munmorah power station, north of Newcastle.
It is a virtual transmission solution today that will let consumers in Newcastle, Sydney, and Wollongong to access more energy from existing generators.
The battery will deliver a $30 million System Integrity Protection Scheme (SIPS) that can provide continuous power capacity of at least 700 megawatts and a 1,400 MWh energy storage capacity.
The battery is set to be completed in 2025. According to Transgrid Executive General Manager of Network, Marie Jordan, “Transgrid is on track to ensure the super battery, SIPS control and network upgrades are completed by mid-2025 in advance of Eraring’s earliest closure date.”
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Why the super battery is a good idea
The super battery will help support NSW’s energy security needs because of how quick it can be rolled out with only small footprint.
Therefore, the super battery is the first priority transmission infrastructure project that will be delivered under the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Act. It is also identified as a key project that can help make forecasts more reliable by The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
Planning minister Anthony Roberts said, “The Waratah Super Battery is well-suited for the State’s energy security needs because it is fast to roll out, has a relatively small footprint, repurposes land and connection infrastructure previously used for a coal-fire power station and will be able to respond almost instantly to disruptions in the energy system.”
The SIPS project is appointed to Transgrid as Network Operator. Transgrid will be the entity responsible for coordinating the project component delivery and operate the SIPS once the project is operational.
The SIPS contract may be similar to California’s Resource Adequacy (RA) structure, in which energy suppliers in California’s CAISO grid is responsible for guaranteeing supply reliability. In that sense, the RA can call on the system several times a year, and you should always be available to meet the requirement.
The same thing applies for Australia, but the impact of thesystem not delivering the energy will be catastrophic for Sydney, which may cause blackouts. However, the frequency of it being called on every year, and how it is structured, is similar to RA, but the impact of the system being offline will be far more devastating.
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