Australia’s Eraring battery expands to 2.8 GWh

The third stage approval of electricity gentailer Origin Energy’s Eraring Battery Project, located at the Eraring Power Station 130 kilometres north of Sydney, will increase its energy storage duration to approximately four hours.

The third stage will add 700 MWh to the combined, under construction 2,100 MWh to be dispatched from the 460 MW first and 240 MW second stages.

Regarded as the largest battery project under construction in the Southern Hemisphere and destined to be Australia’s largest battery energy storage system (BESS), the completed 700 MW/2.8 GWh project will dispatch energy equivalent to powering over 150,000 households annually, when cycled once a day.

Origin Energy Supply and Operations Head Greg Jarvis said construction of the third stage of the Eraring battery further increases the company’s energy storage footprint and is another significant step in its ambition to lead the energy transition through cleaner energy and customer solutions.

“The scale of this project is impressive. The site, at more than 17 hectares, is equivalent in area to 24 soccer fields and once complete, it will host more than 2,000 individual battery enclosures and some 180 kilometres of cabling,” Jarvis said.

Stage three is anticipated to come online with stage one, at the end of 2025, and stage two in 2027.

Battery equipment is being supplied by Finnish technology group Wärtsilä and design and construction services are provided by Enerven.

According to the NSW Department of Climate and Energy Action, the 40-year-old, black-coal-fired 2.8 GW Eraring Power Station delivers 18% of the state’s current electricity needs and is scheduled to close in August 2027, with the option to remain open until mid-2029.

From pv magazine Australia.