Australia completes first solar-BESS hybrid dispatched as a single generator

Australia’s first approved single hybrid generator performance standard (GPS) project has now been built and connected.

A project joint venture (JV)-owned by Italian utilities major Enel Group and Japanese oil and gas giant Inpex, Potentia Energy with its construction partners have completed the $190 million (USD 136.4 million) Quorn Park solar hybrid in New South Wales (NSW).

Located inland from Sydney, the hybrid 98 MW solar and 20 MW / 40 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) Quorn Park hybrid, was the first hybrid project in the National Electricity Market (NEM) to receive approval for a single hybrid generator performance standard (GPS).

Historically, the NEM in Australia required co-located solar and storage assets to register as two separate entities with independent connection agreements. Under the new single hybrid standard, Quorn Park and its 160,000-panels and 16-unit BYD BESS system are licensed and dispatched as one integrated generator under the GPS. It therefore uses a single power plant controller with AC-coupling to govern dynamic interactions between the solar and battery inverters behind one point of connection.

The outcome means that the AC-coupled plant can freely store its own solar output, or import from the grid. The energy can then be time-shifted or arbitraged for higher prices as it operated in three distinct modes – solar only, battery only, and solar battery hybrid.

Potentia Energy has previously noted it had engaged Beon Energy Solutions to deliver the BESS, and had made use of BYD Cube Pro utility-scale battery units. SMA supplied inverters for the solar park and battery system.

Potentia Energy Chief Executive Officer Werther Esposito said Quorn Park is an example of where the energy system is heading.

“As more renewables enter the grid, the challenge isn’t simply how much clean energy we can generate but how flexibly we can use it,” Esposito said.

Esposito added that combining solar generation and battery storage as a genuinely integrated facility, Quorn Park creates greater flexibility to generate, store and dispatch renewable energy according to the needs of the grid.

Potentia Energy Chief Operations Officer Gabriele Mallarini said delivering an integrated hybrid facility required close coordination across every aspect of design, construction, commissioning and grid connection.

“Bringing solar and battery storage together as one plant adds a level of technical and operational complexity that goes well beyond simply building the two assets next to each other,” Mallarini said.

“What matters now is how these technologies perform together in the real world. Quorn Park gives us an opportunity to demonstrate the value that truly integrated renewable generation and storage can provide to the electricity system.”

Quorn Park was delivered with Beon Energy Solutions, SMA Australia, LONGi, BYD, Nextracker and Proa Energy Intelligence.

The project is also supported by a 10-year power purchase agreement with South Australia-headquartered renewable energy gen-tailer Zen Energy.