An agreement between Enel X and Central Irrigation Trust (CIT) will enable the delivery of a battery energy storage project in South Australia with over 8MW of storage in the Riverland region, representing twice the installed capacity in the past year.

The first stage of the project will see 4.4MW/7.4MWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS) installed across four sites in the first half of 2022. The project is set to demonstrate the viability of large distributed batteries hosted on commercial and industrial sites.

Greg McCarron, CEO of Central Irrigation Trust, said the project marks significant progress towards achieving CIT’s sustainability goals.

“The BESS will allow us to significantly lower our carbon footprint while supporting the grid, the community and our customers, at no cost to us. This will contribute to the reliability of the energy system, enable more renewables, help avoid power outages, and reduce our energy expense.”

Jeff Renaud, Head of Enel X Asia and Oceania, said the BESS will manage CIT’s energy use, helping it optimise its energy usage and costs, “allowing the sites to run more efficiently while increasing resiliency”.

The integrated BESS will be owned and operated by Enel X under its own-operate shared benefits model, where Enel X invests the CAPEX required for the batteries, de-risking the project for CIT.

The organisations will share the savings created by Enel X’s proprietary and industry leading Distributed Energy Resources Optimisation Software (DER.OS). Designed to maximise economic value, DER.OS uses advanced machine-learning and AI algorithms to analyse unlimited data including site energy demand, weather forecast inputs, electricity grid conditions and more. DER.OS optimises the BESS’ charge and discharge strategy, decreasing demand charges and extracting value from multiple energy market revenue streams. Integrating with Enel X’s Virtual Power Plant (VPP) platform, the software can access demand response programs which support the grid and allow CIT to reduce its energy costs.

Enel X plans to further expand its BESS offering in Australia this year.