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Summary
- AGL Energy Limited (ASX:AGL) announced a plan to develop a large-scale battery at the Torrens Island Power Station in Adelaide, South Australia.
- The proposal to develop the 250 megawatts grid-scale battery is part of a larger plan of building 850 megawatts of energy storage capacity across NEM.
- The grid-scale battery remains efficient against the existing batteries whilst increasing the reliability of the grid system across SA.
AGL Energy Limited (ASX:AGL) has unveiled plans to develop a giant grid-scale battery in Adelaide, South Australia. The grid-scale battery would compete with fossil fuels to support renewable source generation from solar and wind. The announcement has been hailed as a milestone in the developing technology.
Grid-Scale Battery at Torrens Island Power Station
AGL notified the market that it would build a large battery in South Australia as part of the plan to roll out 850 megawatts of energy storage capacity across the NEM (National Energy Market) by the financial year 2024.
The battery system is expected to be built in stages on the site of the Torrens Island Gas Station, which is planned to shut by 2022. The battery system on the site of the Torrens Island Power Station will host the capacity of up to 250 megawatts, providing a duration of up to four hours.
The planned storage capacity of 250 megawatts across the site of the Torrens Island Power Station would be greater than the existing battery at Hornsdale, SA; however, it would be lesser than the storage capacity of 300-megawatt facility planned for a site near Geelong.
The Higher Efficiency
Many industry experts are labelling the planned construction of grid-scale 250-megawatt battery storage as different from what currently exists across the continent. The Australian batteries having a storage capacity of 1,000 megawatt-hours provide up to four hours of duration.
Therefore, AGL’s plan is currently being regarded as a milestone in developing technologies thanks to its higher efficiency.
Support From the SA Government and a Push to the Grid Reliability
Commenting on the announcement, Brett Redman (CEO and MD) said that the Company would play a leading role in the energy transition business with this new battery and would also lead the frontier across SA’s energy generation.
SA has been a leading contributor to Australia’s low-emissions future with more renewable power generation than any other state, on account of large wind generation.
AGL believes that the planned grid-scale battery would further complement the high renewable generation by delivering more firming capacity, marking another step in the energy transition stage of the state.
Dan van Holst Pellekaan – SA Energy Minster, welcomed the announcement from the Company citing that the state would fast-track the development of the planned grid-scale battery by granting an exemption to AGL at the existing Torrens Island site.
Further, the proposed battery would also increase the reliability of the grid system of NEM by storing the energy on a nice sunny, windy weather and supplying the energy to the grid during peak demands.
Apart from the grid-scale 250-megawatt battery, AGL has also supported the development of other grid-scale batteries, including the 100-megawatt battery at Wandoan, 4 x 50-megawatt batteries at Maoneng, and 30 megawatts battery at Dalrymple.
