South Australia developer brings first grid-scale battery online

Adelaide-headquartered Lunio Energy said the 5 MW / 20 MWh Strathalbyn battery energy storage system is now connected to the grid and responding to the market in real time, supporting South Australia’s continuing renewable energy transition.

Lunio founder and Chief Executive Officer Seth Thuraisingham said the battery, located near the town of Strathalbyn in the Adelaide Hills, is the first of a portfolio of energy storage projects the company, established in 2023, is developing across South Australia.

“This is the moment Lunio goes from developing projects to running them,” he said. “We built the Strathalbyn battery to earn its place in a grid that already runs on renewables for much of the year, and it is now doing that job in the market every day. It is the first asset in a pipeline we are building across South Australia.”

South Australia is widely recognised as a global leader in renewable energy with a target of 100% net renewables by 2027, and regularly meets the majority of its electricity demand with solar and wind.

Thuraisingham said that success has made energy storage the next piece of the puzzle with batteries enhancing the reliability and efficiency of variable generation and maintaining grid stability.

“South Australia is leading the nation on renewable generation, well ahead of other states that are only now moving to retire coal,” he said. “But the hard work is far from done.”

“Storage like ours plays a supporting role, filling the gap so that renewable energy is dependable around the clock and the grid holds stable as more wind and solar come on.”

Lumio said the Strathalbyn battery is now successfully trading energy in the National Electricity Market (NEM), capturing value from price movements through the day, with participation in frequency-control ancillary services (FCAS) markets to follow.

The company said the battery is being optimised and traded through South Australian energy management company OptiGrid’s OptiBidder platform, which utilises AI-powered forecasting and optimisation algorithms to inform market decisions. 

“With the battery now live, OptiBidder is the engine that turns market volatility into revenue for the asset,” Thuraisingham said.

OptiGrid CEO Sahand Karimi said the OptiBidder platform will allow the Strathalbyn battery to respond to market signals by optimising charge and discharge decisions, submitting bids across contingency FCAS markets, and capturing value from price volatility and system needs.

 “The high penetration of renewable energy in South Australia, while bringing many benefits, creates price volatility that is difficult to accurately forecast and respond to,” he said. “Our forecasting models and optimisation algorithms have been developed through years of research, and they’re built to turn that complexity into revenue.”