AGL lays out plans for big batteries

Australia’s largest power generator, AGL Energy, has joined the big battery rush.

Australia’s largest power generator, AGL Energy, has joined the big battery rush after agreeing deals with suppliers to provide up to 1000 megawatts of grid-scale storage.

AGL selected Finland’s Wartsila and US storage provider Fluence as suppliers following a competitive tender process although its battery investments still require sign-off from AGL’s board.

“Our grid-scale battery plans provide critical firming capacity to the market and will play a leading role in the energy industry’s transition over the coming decades,” AGL chief operating officer Markus Brokhof said.

The move by AGL adds to a fresh boom for big batteries and follows decisions this week by Origin Energy and Neoen to consider building two of the world’s biggest batteries worth a combined $1bn at the sites of NSW coal plants.

AGL is increasingly shifting its investment focus to clean energy despite owning some of the ­nation’s largest coal plants in Liddell and Bayswater in NSW’s Hunter Valley and Loy Yang A in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.

It has laid out a 850MW battery storage target by 2024 including plans to build a 250MW battery at South Australia’s Torrens Island to back up the state’s wind and solar supplies.

The Sydney company also plans to build a 200MW battery at its Loy Yang A coal plant, the latest in a string of giant batteries set to help ease the power grid to renewables from the current coal base and a 50MW facility in NSW’s Broken Hill.

Still, AGL is reviewing a 150MW battery investment at its Liddell coal plant amid uncertainty around the NSW government’s controversial energy blueprint.

AGL said the state’s energy road map — which aims to attract $34bn in private investment — meant it would have to defer two major NSW projects as it seeks to understand the implications of the policy.

Up to 19 gigawatts of firmed dispatchable resources such as gas, pumped hydro and batteries will be required in the next two decades to back up renewables in Australia, forecasts show.

“The next few years will be pivotal for Australia’s transition towards a more decarbonised grid, and AGL is starting at the scale of the challenge: supporting the national electricity market’s shift to a higher percentage of renewables with large-scale flexibility,” Fluence vice-president of global markets Jan Teichmann said.

Coal, which currently provides 70 per cent of electricity, will contribute less than a third of supply by 2040, Australian Energy Market Operator forecasts show.