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Highlights
- The New South Wales (NSW) government has chosen Australian Akaysha Energy to fulfil the requirements of its superbattery project.
- Akaysha Energy will develop a battery energy storage system with an energy storage capacity of 1.4 GWh.
- The NSW government has called its Waratah Super Battery ‘the biggest network battery in the Southern Hemisphere’.
Earlier this week, the New South Wales (NSW) government chose Australian battery service provider Akaysha Energy to construct a large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) for its Waratah Super Battery project.
The BESS will be developed to have a guaranteed useable energy storage capacity of at least 1.4 GWh and a guaranteed continuous power capacity of at least 700 MW. However, the BESS will have a total capacity to deliver 850 MW of continuous power and store 1.68 MWh of energy. The government could trade the extra capacity in the electricity market to generate additional revenue streams.
According to an official NSW government document, the driving force behind this superbattery project is to make sure there is adequate energy supply for NSW following the closure of Origin Energy’s (ASX:ORG) Eraring Power Station in 2025.
Significance of the Waratah Super Battery project
The Waratah Super Battery project is expected to be a key contributor to NSW’s energy transition strategy. This superbattery project will work as a System Integrity Protection Scheme (SIPS) component. The SIPS has been developed to monitor transmission lines while enabling the battery to perform as a shock absorber in the case of sudden power spikes, for instance due to lightning strikes or bushfires.
In a recent media release, NSW’s Treasurer and Minister of Energy, Matt Kean, said:
Image Source: © 2022 Kalkine Media ®
Data Source- Company announcement dated 14 October
The Waratah Super Battery, the largest standby network battery in the Southern Hemisphere, is being built at the old Lake Munmorah power station site, which was demolished in 2016–2018. The state government anticipates the project to spur up to AU$1 billion in private investment in the energy storage sector and attract considerable investment to the Hunter and Central Coast regions.
The government has planned to start construction in early 2023 and finish it before the Eraring closure takes place. NSW’s EnergyCo chose Akaysha Energy to be responsible for the construction of BESS through a request for tender process. Meanwhile, the government has appointed Transgrid as the Waratah Super Battery project’s network operator.
