Acen Australia, a subsidiary of Philippines-based conglomerate Ayala Corporation, announced construction work is progressing well on a 200 MW, two-hour capacity battery energy storage facility that will be connected to its New England Solar Farm being developed near Uralla.
Acen said the battery, which has approvals in place to scale up to 1.4 GW / 2.8 GWh capacity, is the first large-scale battery energy storage system to be built in the New England region and combined with the 720 MW solar farm, will be one of Australia’s largest co-located solar and battery energy storage facilities.
Robert Piconi, chief executive officer and chairman of utility-scale energy storage specialist Energy Vault which has been tapped by Acen to deliver the battery, said the project is a “great milestone” for the region and the National Electricity Market.
“Our geotechnical and design work is almost complete and work to install the electrical infrastructure to connect the battery is well underway,” he said.
“We expect the civil and base electrical work for the BESS to begin over the next month or two, ready for the delivery of the battery modules in second half of the year.”
Acen said the 400 MWh battery project will be able to provide energy on demand to customers in both New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland and will also involve the integration of advanced grid-forming inverters to provide system strength, stability, and network security services.
Lucas Sadler, vice president of sales for Energy Vault in Asia, said the New England battery project is the United States-headquartered company’s first project to begin construction in Australia.
“There’s a lot of attention worldwide on the battery storage market in Australia and so we’re very happy to be making a positive contribution here on such an important project,” he said.
“We will be using lithium-ion technology, coupled with a special inverter which means we can add advanced grid-support functionalities such as voltage and frequency ride-through, grid support during disturbances, and reactive power control.”
An expanded switching yard is also being installed to connect the battery system and second stage of the solar project to Transgrid’s transmission network. That work is being undertaken by Lumea, with civil work complete and final commissioning expected by mid-year.
Acen said a 250 MVA electrical transformer weighing 261 tonnes will be trucked to site next month to support the battery system. High-voltage connection specialist EPEC is managing the installation and commissioning of the transformer.
Acen has previously said the New England battery is expected to commence commercial operations in 2026.
The first 400 MW stage of the New England solar farm was brought online in 2023, with work on the 320 MW second stage underway. Once the entire 720 MW project is complete, it will produce about 1,800 GWh of clean electricity each year.
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