This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
ONE of the world’s biggest batteries will be built in Melbourne, delivering capacity to absorb excess solar energy from roofs across the state and power one million homes, after its new Singaporean owner decided to press ahead with and relaunch the $1.9 billion project.
Singapore-based infrastructure developer Equis, whose major shareholders are the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Canada’s Ontario Teachers Pension Plan board, took over the 1,200-megawatt Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub system earlier this year.
Unveiled in August last year and initially known as the Melton Renewable Energy Hub, it was to be developed by local company Syncline Energy about 25 kilometres north west of the CBD at an estimated cost of $800 million. The huge increase in cost is owed to an uplift in storage capacity from 1.6 gigawatt hours of storage to 2.4 GWh, and the jump in costs of batteries due to commodity, lithium and nickel prices and source and supply issues.
Syncline will remain involved in the project until construction starts in over two stages, with the first stage to commence in the second quarter of 2023 and start operations in 2024.
All planning approvals required have been granted.
The system will connect to the National Electricity Market’s 500-kilovolt high voltage transmission system, and have the capacity to collect and store excess energy, which it can release back into the electricity grid at times of instability. It would be able to react within seconds of a request, according to Equis.
It will be built as six distinct component, each with their own connection to the grid.
It will be the first of four battery storage projects across Australia that Equis plans spending $3.8 billion on in the current financial year. There will be projects in as-yet-undisclosed locations in NSW, Queensland and South Australia.
Equis’s decision to move forward with the project follows the announcement of a 250 MW, 500 MWh by Energy Vault to be built three hours north of Melbourne in Meadow Creek.
