ACEN Corp. said Wednesday construction started on the New South Wales region’s first large-scale battery energy storage system, with a capacity of 400 megawatt-hours, at ACEN Australia’s 936-megawatt direct current (720 MWac) New England Solar project.
ACEN Corp., parent firm of ACEN Australia, said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange the battery energy storage system project would provide 200 megawatt-hours of energy over a two-hour period, when needed.
It is the first of two planned systems being built by Energy Vault, an international energy storage specialist, and will be able to provide energy on demand to customers in both New South Wales and Queensland.
The storage project will also integrate advanced grid-forming inverters to provide system strength, stability and network security services.
It is the first large-scale battery storage project to begin construction with support from the New South Wales government’s Emerging Energy Program.
Energy Vault chairman and chief executive Robert Piconi joined the team from New England Solar and ACEN Australia’s Head of Construction and Engineering Tim Greenaway to inspect the battery site.
“This is the first large-scale battery storage project to be built in New England, so this is a great milestone for the region and the National Electricity Market,” Greenaway said.
“Our geotechnical and design work is nearly complete, and work to install the electrical infrastructure to connect the battery is well underway. We expect the civil and base electrical work for the battery energy storage system to begin over the next month or two, ready for the delivery of the battery modules in the second half of the year,” he said.
An expanded switching yard is required to connect the battery system and second stage of the solar project to Transgrid’s transmission network.
The work is being done by Lumea, with civil work complete and final commissioning expected by midyear. A 250 MVA electrical transformer weighing 261 metric tons will be trucked to the site next month to support the battery system.
High-voltage connection specialist EPEC is managing the installation and commissioning of the transformer.
