Queensland’s first community-scale battery is being installed in Townsville to support the transition to renewables and provide back-up power to the local community. The battery will charge up on excess solar being fed into the grid during the day and be used to help out during evening peak and temporary disruptions, including storms.
Acting Energy Minister Mark Furner said the project is a small but significant addition to Queensland’s publicly-owned electricity system and builds on the Queensland Government’s $386 million Powering North Queensland Plan.
“Battery storage technology is the next stage in steady progress to enabling a renewable energy future and reaching our target of 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
“As the first publicly-owned community scale battery in Queensland, this represents an energy milestone.”
The 4MW Tesla battery will be installed at Bohle Plains on Townsville’s northern outskirts in October, with design work underway now and onsite civil works scheduled for late August.
It will form part of Ergon’s virtual power plant, a high-tech control room at Ergon’s CBD headquarters. The Virtual Power Plant has the capability to draw electricity or reduce load from contracted customers around the state to bolster supply to the NEM during peak demand.
A dozen suppliers around the state, including zinc producer Sun Metals, are contracted to provide their excess energy to the virtual power plant, which now has access to 135 MW of electricity – about as much as 40,000 rooftop solar systems.
Mr Furner said Townsville was chosen for the grid-connected battery because of the high number of rooftop solar systems and its proximity to electricity infrastructure.
“With around 20,000 residential rooftop solar systems in Townsville, battery storage technology will help ensure power quality and reliability in the local network,” Mr Furner said.
“It is expected to give the local network greater capacity to take on residential solar in Townsville, as well as provide back-up during summer peak demand.”
“The battery will also take pressure off substations and other power assets and will explore how such technology may allow Energy Queensland to push back spending on some network infrastructure.”
The battery should be operating by the end of this year.