December 22, 2022: Australia announced financial backing on December 19 for seven new grid-scale battery projects across the country, plus the retrofitting of an existing BESS, with a combined storage capacity of 2GW/4.2GWh at a total cost of AUD2.7 billion ($1.8bn).
Federal climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen said the projects would share in AUD176 million of conditional funding through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s (Arena) large scale battery storage funding round.
Arena’s funding will cover new BESS projects in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. Funding will also support retrofitting of the Victorian Big Battery to give the unit grid-forming capability.
The eight projects were chosen from a shortlist of 12 announced on July 6. Arena received 54 expressions of interest for the competitive funding round.
Arena said each of the new lithium ion battery projects would feature grid-forming inverter technology to provide essential system stability services, traditionally provided by fossil fuels such as coal and gas and would represent a tenfold increase in grid-forming electricity storage capacity operational in the National Electricity Market.
Arena CEO Darren Miller said: “This pipeline of grid-forming projects will help move us closer to an electricity grid that can support 100% renewable energy in the National Electricity Market.”