The Victoria government-owned State Electricity Commission (SEC) announced that the final 335 tonne transformer to be deployed as part of the estimated $1.9 billion (USD 1.28 billion) Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub (MREH) being constructed in Melbourne’s outer west has arrived on site for installation.
The SEC, which is developing the MREH in partnership with Singapore-headquartered renewable energy investor and developer Equis, said with all 444 Tesla Megapacks and two transformers already installed, the arrival of the third transformer marks a significant milestone at one of Australia’s biggest battery energy storage projects.
“Transformers play a vital role for any renewable energy generation or storage project,” the SEC said. “They allow energy to be sent to and from the transmission network at the appropriate voltage, enabling BESS operations, maximising grid performance and reducing transmission losses over long distances.”
“Once all three transformers are connected, they will enable MREH to deliver up to 1.6 GWh of energy storage into the grid.”
The first stage of the MREH, being constructed across a 90-hectare site at Plumton in Melbourne’s outer west, comprises three separate 200 MW battery energy storage systems, two with two hours of storage and one with four hours of storage. Each of the units will have individual points of connection to the National Electricity Market (NEM), allowing them to be used for different purposes simultaneously.
A proposed second stage would also have 600 MW of power and eight to 12 hours of storage capacity.
The battery system will connect to the NEM 500 kV high voltage transmission system via an underground transmission line.
The SEC said the project is on track to come online in late 2025, when it will begin storing excess solar during the day and releasing it during the evening peak to meet demand, strengthening the electricity network as ageing coal-fired power stations retire and unlock capacity for more renewable energy.
Once fully completed, the battery is expected to allow 1.8 GW of new renewable energy generation to be added to the Victorian grid.
The MREH is the most advanced project being progressed by the publicly owned SEC which has an initial $1 billion (USD 640 million) funding commitment to help fast-track the delivery of 4.5 GW of new renewable energy generation and storage assets, including 2.6 GW by 2028.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.