South Australia

Another big battery has gone live in South Australia with the goal to contribute to energy security and reliability as a heatwave puts grid under pressure. The $30 million energy storage system is developed and owned by ElectraNet, as the first battery in the NEM to provide regulated network services and competitive market services.

The Chinese-Canadian solar manufacturer has bought a South Australian large-scale solar farm from renewables developer Tetris Energy. A PPA has been inked with electricity retailer Flow Power to power some of the local agricultural business.

A newcomer to Australian solar, Indonesia’s Terregra Renewables, has appointed Balance Utility Solutions to carry out EPC activities on a 5 MW solar farm north of Murray Bridge in South Australia.

The Canadian battery manufacturer says its order book has crossed the $1.5 million mark in less than two weeks after joining the South Australian Home Battery Scheme.

Does renewable electricity raise or lower electricity prices? There is more to this question than meets the eye: are prices lower before or after renewable subsidies are recovered, how has variability been accounted for, how have changes in network costs been accounted for, and so on and on. Bruce Mountain, the Director of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre and Steven Percy, a research fellow at Victoria University set out new findings.

A new report analyzing the world’s largest lithium-ion battery’s performance in the first year of operation shows the Hornsdale Power Reserve has delivered on high expectations of its performance and market impact. It has helped stabilize the grid, avoid outages and reduce system costs, as well as triggered a surge in uptake of similar fast response systems across Australia.

Pernod Ricard Winemakers will source 100% of its electricity from renewables by mid-2019. The company, responsible for wine brands Jacob’s Creek and Brancott Estate, will install 2.8 MW of PV at its Barossa Valley winery, and source the remainder of its power from renewable energy, under a Virtual Generation Agreement with retailer Flow Power.

The second phase of the proposed 250 MW virtual power plant will see Tesla Powerwall batteries and solar panels installed on 1,000 South Australian households.

The German energy storage provider has begun assembling batteries at the former Holden site at Elizabeth in Adelaide’s north. The company has already hired 50 full-time employees.

The South Australian state government has launched a $50 million fund to support construction of new energy storage projects, seeking to address intermittency in the state electricity system and make electricity more affordable and reliable. There will be one round of applications, with a closing date of Thursday, 7 February 2019.