CEP.Energy (CEP) is planning to build the world’s largest grid-scale battery at Kurri Kurri.
The power source, with capacity up to 1200MW, will be located within the Hunter Economic Zone (HEZ) precinct, under a new 30-year lease agreement with the Hunter Investment Corporation.
CEP CEO Peter Wright said the business was on track to become the biggest battery storage asset owner in the Australian energy market.
“Our grid-scale battery network is part of our dual-track strategy to generate and store clean, reliable and cost-effective electricity for Australian businesses, while making excess power available to the national grid to firm up the increase in renewable generation,” he explained.
“To achieve this, we have secured strategic locations with excellent access to existing network connection infrastructure.
“We’ve also assembled a senior management team with outstanding credentials in national energy system design and management.
“The HEZ site for our NSW battery is zoned for heavy industrial use, pre-approved for power generation and located adjacent to an Ausgrid sub-station.
“It is among the best handful of sites in Australia for reliable and efficient grid connection.”
Mr Wright said the Hunter battery was proposed to be developed in stages.
An expression of interest process to select a battery provider will soon be issued, too.
The start of construction of CEP’s NSW big battery is planned for the first quarter of 2022, while the target timeframe for the beginning of operations is 2023.
CEP chairman Morris Iemma said integrated grid-scale battery networks were accelerating Australia’s transition to a clean energy future.
“Big batteries, including the one planned by CEP.Energy for the Hunter, will play a major role in filling the gaps left by the gradual retirement of coal and gas-fired generation assets, including the nearby Liddell Power Station,” he stated.
“The clean energy roadmap laid out by the NSW Government has provided the market with the confidence to invest in renewable generation supported by large battery storage.
“This project will help ensure the Hunter region remains true to its heritage as one of the nation’s energy powerhouses as we work towards a cleaner, decarbonised future.”
The Energy Security Board Post 2025 Market Design Directions Paper, released in January 2021, states that over the next two decades 26-50 gigawatts (GW) of new, large scale variable renewable energy (VRE) – in addition to existing, committed and anticipated projects – is forecast to come online.
It adds this will be supported by between 6 GW and 19 GW of new flexible and dispatchable resources as approximately 16 GW of thermal generation retires.
“Reliable battery storage will provide contingency supply to enable greater levels of variable renewable generation to penetrate the Australian energy market moving forward,” CEP’s chief strategy advisor and previously GM Real Time operations and systems capability at the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) Mark Stedwell said.
“There is clearly scope for more big battery projects that stack up in terms of location and a sustainable business model.”
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