EnergyAustralia unveils plans for big battery in South Australia

EnergyAustralia has unveiled plans for a big battery in SA, as part of a 5GW pipeline of grid firming projects across the country.

EnergyAustralia’s Hallett Power Station in South Australia. Picture: Supplied by EnergyAustralia

Electricity giant EnergyAustralia has unveiled plans for a big battery in South Australia, as part of a 5GW pipeline of grid firming projects it plans to roll out across the country.

More than $100m is expected to be spent on the first stage of the project, which has been earmarked for a site adjacent to the company’s Hallett power station in Canowie, 210km north of Adelaide.

It would support an initial storage capacity of 50MW and discharge capacity of up to 200MWh - the equivalent of powering up to 81,000 homes for four hours.

There are plans to expand the battery’s capacity to 200MW/800MWh over time as the company looks to retire its gas-fired power station at the site.

EnergyAustralia will seek federal support for the project via the government’s recently expanded Capacity Investment Scheme, which is currently open for project submissions in South Australia and Victoria, with the aim of adding 2400MWh of storage capacity across the two states.

EnergyAustralia head of portfolio development Dan Nugent said that while there was no timeframe set on the retirement of the gas-fired power station at the Hallett site, the battery would play a role in the company’s energy transition.

“With this battery we have the potential to look to expand it to 200MW/800MWh, and we will do that as our gas-fired power station units start to retire,” he said.

“What we really need to make sure is we have the firming capacity, whether it’s battery storage, or gas-fired firming. But by doing the battery, what we’re trying to do is transition to a cleaner energy system.

“Hallett gas-fired power station still plays a really key role, and so there’s no targeted timeframe on the retirement at this point. But what we would like to do is start to transition to a cleaner energy system.”

Bids for the current round of the Capacity Investment Scheme close on February 23, and EnergyAustralia expects to make an investment decision on the Hallett battery around the end of this year.

Further assessments and community consultation will be undertaken, and subject to state government approvals, the battery is expected to be operational as early as the beginning of 2026.

EnergyAustralia has been more definitive about the closure of its coal-fired power stations, with its Yallourn facility in Victoria due for retirement in 2028, before the closure of the Mt Piper power station in NSW by 2040.

However Mr Nugent said gas-fired plants would continue to play a key role in firming the grid given the current limitations of battery storage technology.

“I think the biggest challenge in the energy transition is that longer duration storage,” he said.

“Previously the historical batteries have come in and their business case has been built on ancillary services, so monetising grid stability as opposed to providing energy.

“But I think now we’re moving towards a world where batteries are going to need to play a more meaningful role from an energy perspective and capacity.

“Where we’re seeing the lithium-ion batteries being the right technology up to that four hours, we need to find the right technology for that longer duration storage. Pumped hydro plays a pretty key role, sort of eight to 10 hours, but even then there’s still probably longer duration storage that is needed.”

As part of its 5GW pipeline of storage and firming projects, EnergyAustralia is investigating the feasibility of a pumped hydro project at Lake Lyell near Lithgow in NSW.

It is also investigating longer duration storage technologies utilising a development site at Marulan, south-west of Sydney.

“We’re looking at what is the best long duration storage technology that we can apply to that site up in NSW,” Mr Nugent said.

“One of the examples of a more emerging technology is the compressed air energy storage from Hydrostor, and we think that technology has quite a bit of merit.

“We’re definitely looking at exploring the application of that technology - we’re keen to see how we can utilize that technology at one of our sites.”

As part of its energy transition, EnergyAustralia will also spend $5bn by 2030 to develop 3GW of renewable energy generation assets to replace its coal power generation.

The $5bn spend will be spent directly and with partners.

Originally published as EnergyAustralia unveils plans for big battery in South Australia