The Hazelwood Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) is Australia’s first battery-based energy storage system to be hosted at a retired coal-fired power plant in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, east of Melbourne, and represents a key moment in repurposing former thermal assets for renewable energy technologies.
Currently a 150 MW/150 MWh system, the project’s innovative design and the site’s unique location provide the flexibility to scale up storage capacity quickly and cost effectively, both in size and duration, to meet future network and market demand. Fluence supplied and will maintain the Hazelwood BESS under a 20-year contract with ENGIE and Eku Energy.
Hazelwood BESS is the first project in Australia to use Fluence’s Gridstack energy storage product. With a commissioning event held in June 2023, the system provides safe, secure, and reliable energy to consumers in Victoria and supports the region’s energy transition. Projects like Hazelwood BESS are critical to meeting Victoria’s battery storage objectives of 6.3 GW by 2035 as the state strives for 95% energy generated from renewable sources by 2035.
“We are honored to be recognised by the Asian Power Awards two years in a row. As Australia’s largest privately funded utility-scale energy storage system, the Hazelwood BESS funded by ENGIE and Eku Energy will serve as an important proof point that energy storage systems are viable for long-term privately funded investments,” said David Mikaeloff, Fluence’s VP Sales of APAC and GM Australia.
The Asian Power Awards, now in its 19th year, recognises and honours innovative and ground-breaking projects and initiatives in the power sector to meet the growing demand for energy.
In 2022, Fluence won a Silver Award at the Asian Power Awards in the Battery Storage Project of the Year category for SMCGP’s Kabankalan battery-based energy storage system deployed by Fluence in the Philippines.
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