Waratah Super Battery energized in Australia

Akaysha Energy announced the way is now clear for commissioning works to commence on the Waratah Super Battery which is the centrepiece of the New South Wales (NSW) government’s plan to deliver greater reliability and resilience to the grid as coal power exits the system.

Victoria-headquartered developer Akaysha, owned by United States-based asset manager BlackRock, said it has completed the first stage of energisation of the battery energy storage project.

Akaysha said the Waratah substation has been energised at 330 kV, facilitated by an overhead transmission line from NSW network operator Transgrid’s existing Munmorah substation.

“This paves the way for commissioning works to commence on the project and is a key milestone in moving towards commercial operations and delivering the SIPS (system integrity protection scheme) service to the NSW electrical network,” the developer said.

Akaysha Chief Engineer Nick Finch said the initial energisation is a major milestone for the battery energy storage system being built at the site of a shuttered power station at Lake Munmorah on the NSW Central Coast.

“Completion of Waratah’s connection process and registration of the NEM’s largest single DUID (dispatchable unit identifier) at 850 MW has taken an incredible amount of collaboration,” he said.

“This massive milestone is a testament to teamwork and sign of the evolving connection landscape in the NEM. It’s such an exciting time to be in this industry.”

The Waratah Super Battery, which is backed by a near-five-year contract from NSW’s EnergyCo, will act as a “shock absorber” for the electricity grid, with up to 700 MW / 1,400 MWh ready to respond in the event of sudden power surges such as those caused by a lightning strike or bushfire.

Akaysha will be able to trade the additional capacity in the electricity market to access additional revenue streams.

It is anticipated the Waratah Super Battery project will be fully operational by mid-2025.

Consolidated Power Projects Australia (CPP) is the principal contractor overseeing the construction of the battery while United States-based equipment manufacturer Powin is providing the battery hardware and software and its wholly owned subsidiary, EKS Energy, is providing most of the power equipment such as inverters. Victori-headquartered manufacturer Wilson Transformer Company was responsible for the ‘super load’ transformers that arrived at the site earlier in the year.