Alinta secures approval for second battery in WA’s southwest

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Alinta Energy announced it has secured approval to build a 300 MW battery energy storage system alongside a 100 MW / 200 MWh battery currently under construction at Wagerup in Western Australia (WA).

The Chinese-owned power utility said the battery energy storage system – the duration of which is yet to be confirmed – will enhance system security and stability as WA continues the introduction of intermittent energy sources, such as domestic and utility scale solar, into the grid.

The $500 million (USD 333 million) project is to be built next to Alinta’s existing 380 MW gas and diesel-fired power plant near Alcoa’s alumina refinery and adjacent to Alcoa’s alumina refinery at Wagerup, about 120 kilometres south of Perth in Western Australia’s (WA) southwest.

The Metro Outer Joint Development Assessment Panel’s (DAP) approval of the new battery comes just months after Alinta announced construction had begun on its 100 MW two-hour battery at the site.

The 100 MW project, being delivered by electrical design firm Shanghai Electric Power Design Institute (SEPD) and Australian solar and battery installer Sunterra, is scheduled to be commissioned during the “second half of 2024.”

Alinta Head of Project Development Russell Slaughter said the new 300 MW battery energy storage system will provide quickly dispatchable energy, helping to manage fluctuations in the electricity market and maintain reliability in WA’s South West Interconnected System.

“With the continued increase of intermittent energy sources into the state’s main electricity network, the need for dispatchable energy sources that can react quickly to changes in the electricity market is increasing,” he said.

“Our second battery will support the introduction of more solar and other intermittent renewable energy sources into the existing network by maintaining system security and stability.”

The DAP approval grants Alinta permission to develop the 300 MW battery energy storage system along with associated infrastructure, including transformers, high-voltage cabling, a switch room, control room, internal access roads, and other necessary infrastructure.

The battery will connect to existing high-voltage infrastructure at the Wagerup power station and is expected to be completed by October 2027.

Alinta’s announcement comes the WA and federal governments opened registrations for the first Capacity Investment Scheme tender for the state. The tender aims to deliver 500 MW of four-hour equivalent, or 2,000 MWh, of dispatchable capacity projects in the Western Australian Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM).

This is the first in a series of tenders to be held approximately every 12 months until 2027 that are expected to deliver 2.3 GW of new solar and wind generation and 1.1 GW of four-hour equivalent dispatchable capacity in the WEM by 2030.

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