As part of the Victorian Government’s $480 million investment into the state’s energy grid, 100 large-scale rechargeable lithium-ion batteries have been delivered to the Koorangie Energy Storage System.
The Tesla Megapacks are expected to provide critical energy storage and boost the amount of renewables that can be hosted in the Murray River region by up to 300MW.
The Koorangie Energy Storage System is one of 12 projects being delivered as part of the Victorian Government’s $480 million Renewable Energy Zone Fund, which aims to strengthen and modernise the grid so more affordable and reliable renewable energy can flow to homes, businesses, hospitals and schools across the state.
The project is expected to use grid forming inverters to enable the battery to play a dual role in providing both storage for the abundant renewable energy in north-west Victoria and strengthening the grid to enable even more renewables to connect.
The 100 Telsa Megapacks will total 185MW of storage capacity. Once completed in 2025, a single charge of the battery system will be able to power all the homes in the Gannawarra Shire Council area for more than 14 days or all the homes in Kerang for more than 30 days.
In addition, the grid forming inverters will allow the battery to replace the type of system strength services provided by fossil-fuel generators. The project was identified by VicGrid and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) as a priority for development and is being delivered by Edify Energy and infrastructure investor Sosteneo on behalf of the government and AEMO.
The Victorian Government has legislated ambitious storage targets of at least 2.6GW by 2030 and at least 6.3GW by 2035 – enough renewable energy to power around half of Victoria’s current homes at their peak energy use.
Victorian Minister for Energy and Resources, Lily D’Ambrosio, said, “Koorangie is a cutting-edge facility that will help Victoria hit our energy storage targets and support our transition to renewable energy by providing stability to our energy grid regional Victoria.
“Projects like Koorangie are keeping the lights on for households across the state and are helping us move away from expensive fossil fuels and onto safer, affordable and more reliable renewable energy.”
Victorian Member for Northern Victoria, Jaclyn Symes, said, “This energy storage system will help maximise the renewable energy potential of north-west Victoria and provide more energy security to regional towns and communities when they need it most.”
Image credit: Phonlamai Photo/Shutterstock.com.
