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TransGrid will build Australia's first large battery using Tesla Megapack. The project is set to be the first of more than 10 large batteries to be built in New South Wales (NSW) as the company prepares to decommission its aging coal park.
TransGrid operates and manages the high voltage electricity transmission network in NSW and the ACT, connecting generators, distributors, and major end-users.
The Wallgrove Grid Battery will be located at the Wallgrove substation in western Sydney and will provide fast frequency response and inertia services to the NSW transmission network via Tesla's synthetic inertia product known as “Virtual Machine Mode,” according to Renew Economy.
The Wallgrove's 50MW/75MW battery will be the country's second-largest big Tesla battery at Hornsdale in South Australia, which has a capacity of 150MW/194MW.
The Wallgrove Grid Battery will be the first in Australia to deploy new Tesla Megapack units with capacities up to 3MWh, 15 times bigger than the Powerback batteries used in Hornsdale, Lake Bonney, and Gannawarra.
The $61.9 million battery will receive up to $11.5 million in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and another $10 million from the New South Wales government through its Emerging Energy Program. Infigen, which owns wind assets, as well as a fast-start gas generator in NSW, will pay TransGrid its operating lease payments and make a profit. Construction will begin in February and is due to start operations in October 2021.
Source: TransGrid
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the Wallgrove Grid Battery aims to prove that large scale battery storage is the most effective solution for managing system inertia as Australia transitions to renewable energy.
“Large scale batteries have a big role to play in firming and balancing our electricity system as we move towards a future energy mix with higher penetration of renewable energy,” he said.
© 2020, Eva Fox. All rights reserved.
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About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
