As one of the largest isolated power systems in the world, Western Australia’s energy grid has to tackle some unique challenges in order to successfully transition to renewable energy.
Western Australia is home to world-class solar and wind resources, abundant gas supply and a wealth of battery metals. However, as its grids are isolated from the rest of the country this presents both challenges and new opportunities for the state. Synergy Executive General Manager, Future Energy, Kurt Baker, shares how BESS (battery energy storage systems) are helping the state navigate this transition.
Large-scale battery storage offers an opportunity to provide long-term system stability and support additional renewable generation. To achieve this, Synergy has three major BESS projects in the pipeline, with one already operational and two under construction.
Navigating the transition
In June 2022, the Western Australian Government announced that the Collie Power Station is set to be retired in late 2027, followed by the Muja D power station in late 2029, which would remove a combined 1,127MW of electricity generation from the SWIS (South West Interconnected System).
To help replace this capacity, Synergy is delivering an additional 410MW of renewable generation, backed by 1,100MW of energy storage infrastructure.
Synergy Executive General Manager, Future Energy, Kurt Baker, explained that in order to deliver on these projects, Synergy established a new business unit in 2022 called Future Energy, to lead the development of this renewable generation and storage infrastructure, from concept, pre-feasibility and feasibility, through to execution and operation.
“The challenge we have on our hands, or the opportunity, is to deliver those programmes of investments,” Mr Baker said.
“We’re putting in 1,100MW of additional storage to assist with the retirement of our coal plants. This storage will both help to soak up the rooftop solar generated during the day and timeshift that into the evening peaks. And to help contribute to keeping the system reliable and stable.”
Mr Baker said that as Western Australia’s grid operates differently from the way in which the National Electricity Market (NEM) operates in the rest of the country, this means that the state has to take a unique approach to its energy transition.
“The way we’re set up over here in Western Australia is that while we have some similarities to the NEM – for example in that we have the AEMO as our market operator – the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) operates a little differently.
“In the NEM you have many different transmission systems, which are owned by different parties. Here, we only have one party, which is Western Power who are also owned by the State Government.
“In terms of Synergy itself, we do everything generation and retail. We are a government trading enterprise, but we are also one of many market participants in the generation and storage side of the market. One of the unique characteristics of Synergy is that we’re the only entity that can actually sell to the residential customers here in Western Australia,” Mr Baker said.
There are two separate electricity grids in Western Australia, the NWIS (North-West Interconnected System), which covers the north-western part of the state and the SWIS (South-West Interconnected System), which is the main grid and covers the south-western part of Western Australia. Western Power owns and operates the transmission and distribution infrastructure within the SWIS. Synergy is the generator and retailer of electricity in the SWIS.
Mr Baker explained that the SWIS is a fraction of the size of the NEM, and completely isolated from the rest of Australia.
“Unlike the NEM, where you’ve got transmission networks that connect each state together, we’re all on our own here in Western Australia.
“We’ve got abundance of wind and solar resources, which is a great opportunity for us. But that also brings about challenges in managing the overall system.
“There is lots of sun during the day, but once that sun goes down, that generation associated with that sun disappears. This means we’ve got a big differential between demand on the system during the middle of the day, when the sun is shining, versus the peak periods.
“We also don’t have geographical diversity. In the NEM, if the sun stops shining because the clouds come over in Queensland, then there might be sun down in New South Wales and because the transmission lines are interconnected you can move electricity from state to state. We don’t have that luxury with the system here. So generally, if it’s not windy, it’s not windy everywhere on our system.
“Rooftop PV is also being installed at a great rate, which is excellent for the decarbonisation of the system.
“However, all that electricity that gets generated during the day needs to be soaked up, and then we need to replace it when the sun goes down at night.
“We want to support customers to continue to put solar on their roofs. It’s generating the renewable electricity, which is great for the energy transition and decarbonising the energy system.
“By installing the battery energy systems, they soak up the rooftop solar produced on people’s homes and can then time shift energy to the peak period, so that we can then withdraw that energy from the batteries to support the peak load on the system.
“Battery energy storage systems also help contribute to the Essential System Services, which help keep the electricity grid in a safe, stable, and secure operating state.”
Kicking energy storage goals
To date, Synergy has completed one major BESS project – Kwinana Stage 1 (KBESS1) – and has two more in the pipeline; Kwinana Stage 2 (KBESS2) and the CBESS (Collie Battery Energy Storage System).
“Our first one was what we now call KBESS1, which is 100MW/200MW/h or, in other words, two-hour storage. We completed that in September 2023, but we were about halfway through the construction of that particular system when the State Government made its announcements in 2022, which lead us to launch into KBESS2,” Mr Baker said.
“As the name suggests, KBESS2 is pretty much next door to that existing facility, but it’s a 200MW/800MW/h, so it’s a four-hour battery. This one will be complete in October this year.
“The next one underway is CBESS, which is 500MW/2,000MW/h. So that project, like KBESS 2 is on track, on schedule and budget.”
Mr Baker explained that both KBESS2 and CBESS are schedule-driven, as the overall system in the state has a need for these projects as soon as they can be completed.
“Demand for electricity is growing at even greater rates than initially thought, which results in these projects having pressure to deliver on time,” Mr Baker said.
In May 2024, Synergy awarded a $160 million contract to SCEE Electrical to undertake civil, electrical and major equipment installation works for CBESS.
“We’ve completed all the all the early stage earth works for that particular project, so we’re pleased to say we’re off and running,” Mr Baker said.
Synergy also announced in January 2024 that it had reached another milestone in the delivery of KBESS2, having completed the installation of containerised battery systems.
Mr Baker said, however, that with the three batteries combined, Synergy was still 400MW shy of its 1100MW target.
“Now we’re investigating what our next project will be. We’ve got quite a good pipeline of storage projects, and like all infrastructure projects, they’ve got challenges. But we’re pleased to say we’ve been able to navigate our way around those various challenges successfully so far to get these things delivered on time,” Mr Baker said.
Mr Baker also said that another focus area for Synergy is to support the transition with distributed energy resources (DER).
“We’re doing the work to grow our capabilities, so that we can orchestrate those assets in customers’ homes and help customers contribute to keeping the system stable, and help them get better value out of systems they’ve got installed in their homes. So, it’s complementary to the large-scale storage as well.”
Powering through challenges
Despite the positive outcomes for the BESS projects, delivering these works was not without its challenges, which required exceptional problem solving from Synergy.
“For storage projects, when you’re trying to deliver those as quickly as you can, one of the challenges is securing long lead items, which is the batteries themselves, the battery modules, and the inverters,” Mr Baker said.
“One of the initiatives that we took is we engaged with the battery inverter market early and then put our supply arrangements in place so that we could essentially forward book production slots for batteries and inverters before we finished fully designing out the remainder of the projects.
“This also helped us build the relationships with the suppliers early in these projects, which allowed us to work more closely together with them.”
Mr Baker explained that another challenge for Synergy was securing the resources and capability needed to deliver the projects.
“The initiative that we took there was to approach these projects with an integrated project management team, which really means we’ve got a combination of Synergy people and engineering partners, and put together a project team to do both engineering and project management.
“In the interest of making sure that we deliver these projects as quickly as we can, we’ve been trying to engage organisations, partners and people who are aligned to our objectives, with our plan as much as possible. If you can get the right motivated people who are all aligned with a common purpose and objectives, then you can just about overcome anything,” Mr Baker said.
Mr Baker notes that this approach helped Synergy to tackle some major obstacles with KBESS2.
“We were due to ship our inverters out of Spain, but not too long after a lot of geopolitical tension was created across the Suez Canal and we couldn’t get our inverters to come through the standard shipping routes.
“That was going to set our delivery right back. So, what we did was we worked with shipping agents, we worked with the inverter suppliers themselves, and we ended up chartering vessels to come the long way around. And we actually managed to do it in a way that those inverters landed In Fremantle Port slightly ahead of the original schedule. Which is just an example of how having the right people, the right partners, all with the same common purpose working together helps to overcome these challenges.”
Empowering the community
As part of delivering it’s BESS projects, Synergy is committed to making a positive impact on the communities that it serves, and the utility ensures that it works with local Western Australian suppliers whenever possible.
Synergy also supports community organisations, charities and not-for profits driving positive, sustainable outcomes for people and the environment across the SWIS through its Community Investment programs.
Synergy’s Collie Small Grants Program provides one-off grants of up to $5,000 to local not-for-profit organisations that demonstrate their ability to deliver social, economic or environmental benefits to the Collie community.
As of 2024, this is the sixth year Synergy’s Collie Small Grants Program has been making a positive impact in the region. During that time about $170,000 has been distributed to the community.
“We try and get the local community involved as much as we possibly can,” Mr Baker said.
Synergy regularly hosts face-to-face engagement and information sessions with Collie community members, supports local community initiatives and events and recently arranged a local jobs fair to aid in the appointment of local people in the project.
Featured image: Kwinana Battery Energy Storage System 2. Image credit: Synergy.