Hornsdale Power Reserve

French renewables developer Neoen has credited the Victorian Big Battery with almost tripling its storage revenues in the first nine months of 2022. To September, the company’s revenues totalled $547 million (USD 347.4 million), with growth in solar and wind revenues paling beside the massive surge from battery storage.

South Australia’s 150 MW / 193.5 Hornsdale Power Reserve, more commonly known as the Tesla Big Battery, will now provide inertia services to Australia’s National Electricity Market after securing approval from AEMO. Neoen says it is the first big battery in the world to deliver the service at such a scale.

The operator of the 150 MW/193 MWh Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia has been fined $900,000 after being sued by the Australian Energy Regulator for failing to deliver on its promise of providing services essential to maintaining the stability of the power grid.

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.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has announced a $100 million competitive funding round for grid scale batteries. While battery technology agnostic, the projects must be equipped with advanced inverter technology.

Building on our previous Chart of the week in October, where we reviewed the first couple of weeks of 5-minute settlement, we wanted to revisit this topic. Now two months in, we take another look and see how well the fastest responding assets in the NEM are capturing the best prices in the 5-minute market.

Neoen today announced construction has begun on its 100 MW/200 MWh Capital Battery, which doubled from its initial 50 MW capacity proposed last year. The battery is to be built 10km southeast of the Australian capital, Canberra.

The 300 MW / 450 MWh Victorian big battery in Geelong has today commenced operation. In spite of fire breaking out during commissioning in July, the battery has been delivered in record time, taking less than a year to build and begin operations.

Batteries in South Australia have been paid to charge throughout September and October 2021 due to a record number of negative price intervals. Wholesale electricity prices were negative almost 40% of the time.

The Australian Energy Regulator has filed a lawsuit against the Hornsdale Power Reserve, which is owned and operated by French renewable energy developer Neoen, alleging it failed to provide the grid security services it was paid to deliver.