Grids & Integration

French renewable developer Neoen has signed a seven year agreement with energy giant AGL to provide 70 MW / 140 MWh of ‘virtual battery capacity’ in New South Wales.

Increased demand and continual outages at gas and coal power plants in Queensland have seen a rise in the occurrence of extreme price spikes. The timing of these spikes, typically at peak hours between 5pm and 8pm, are seeing solar revenues soar just as the sun is setting.

The CSIRO will invest $50 million in four new programs to drive critical breakthroughs in electric vehicle batteries and creating storage solution which could “mimic pumped hydro.”

In September 2021, not long after a fire at the Victorian Big Battery made international headlines, Neoen’s original “Big Battery” – the Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia – was sued by the Australian Energy Regulator for failing to provide all of the frequency control ancillary services it had agreed to offer. The case is now before Australia’s Federal Court, where the judgement could set an important precedent for network operations in Australia, as well as the transition to large-scale batteries.

Transgrid and the Commonwealth Government have come to a $75 million underwriting agreement for the construction of the Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector West, a key piece of network infrastructure in the Australian Market Operator’s Integrated System Plan for the increased integration of renewables and maintaining reliability amidst the retirement of coal-fired power.

Another of the five community-sized Tesla batteries the Queensland government promised to install at substations across the state is on the verge of energisation in Bundaberg.

The University of Sydney, Australia’s oldest, has signed a contract with Snowy Hydro and its subsidiary Red Energy to match “100%” of its energy consumption with renewables, in particular solar.

Homeowners who participate in a new Enphase pilot project will connect their home batteries to the US grid, sharing energy through Green Mountain Power’s distribution system in exchange for financial incentives.

The New South Wales Government has outlined plans for another coordinated renewable energy zone which will deliver at least 2.5GW of new network capacity as the state’s transitions from fossil fuels towards renewable power accelerates.

AGL has committed to another big battery project as it seeks to add at least 850MW of new large-scale energy storage to its portfolio by 2024, confirming it will begin construction of a 50MW/50MWh battery at Broken Hill which will improve energy security in regional New South Wales.