The first big battery to be built at an Australian coal site has gone live in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, east of Melbourne.
The 150-megawatt battery is at the site of the former Hazelwood power station, which was built in the 1960s and closed in March, 2017.
The battery has the capacity to power about 75,000 homes for an hour during the evening peak.
Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio visited the site today for the battery’s commissioning.
“Victoria is leading the nation in delivering battery and energy storage projects, with our ambitious energy storage targets ensuring that Victoria continues to attract industry investment and collaboration opportunities like this,” she said.
“The Latrobe Valley has been the home of Victoria’s energy generation for decades and new investment in technologies like energy storage will help solidify its role in our renewable energy future.”
The battery is operated by Hazelwood’s owner, French energy giant Engie, and its partners Eku Energy and Fluence.
Victoria aims to have at least 2.6 gigawatts of battery storage connected to the grid by 2030 and 6.3GW by 2035.
It is also working towards generating 95 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2035.
A region in transition
The Latrobe Valley has been the home of Victoria’s coal-fired power stations since last century.
Hazelwood was the first to close, with Yallourn and Loy Yang A set to follow. in 2028 and 2035, respectively.
The Hazelwood battery will take advantage of existing grid infrastructure installed to service the coal industry to feed power into the grid.
That infrastructure will be used to connect offshore wind farms planned for waters off the Gippsland coast.
The most advanced Gippsland offshore wind project, the 2.2GW Star of the South, is expected to be Australia’s first, but it is not expected to be active until 2030.
Electrical Trades Union Gippsland organiser Peter Mooney said the Hazelwood battery would “give people [in the region] confidence that there are things being built” in the electricity sector as the coal plants close down.
“‘It’ll be something that people, I think, will find very interesting … considering that we’ve also got three other batteries touted for this area,” he said.
He said batteries would mostly provide short-term employment opportunities during construction and not many during their operation.
