AGL has celebrated a significant milestone in the company’s energy transition journey with the opening of its 250 megawatt grid-scale battery at Torrens Island in Adelaide.
This battery, which was constructed in 18 months, is the second-largest in Australia and can consistently operate at 250 megawatts for an hour.
It also includes 218 battery cabinets which house more than 6,000 battery modules.
SA Energy and Mining Minister Tom Koutsantonis said: “Already more than 70 per cent of South Australia’s electricity is supplied by renewables and we want this to grow as we reduce dependence on expensive gas and unreliable coal power.
SA has the largest penetration of rooftop solar panels across the nation and the battery will respond to the state’s grid in milliseconds, providing additional capacity and frequency control services as required by the system.
“Instead of turning off people’s solar systems when there is an excess supply, solutions such as our Hydrogen Jobs Plan and projects such as this battery create value by storing that cheap energy instead of wasting it,” said Koutsantonis.
AGL CEO Damien Nicks said the grid-scale battery will provide enough electricity to power approximately 75,000 SA homes for one hour with the option to extend the duration to four hours (1000 megawatt hour) in the future when the market is ready.
“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. 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 – this is the transition in action,” said Nicks.
AGL COO Markus Brokhof said at the height of the battery’s construction, approximately 110 people were working on the battery which grew the workforce capability for this energy transition.
The company hopes to continue playing their part in Australia’s energy transition as they work towards their goal of reaching 12 gigawatts of renewable and firming capacity by 2035.
Neoen currently owns and operates the biggest battery in Australia — the 300 megawatt Victorian Big Battery has the energy capacity to power more than one million homes in Victoria for half an hour.
