Battery boom gathers pace AGL’s 250MW with Loy Yang plan
AGL’s bid to build a facility at its Loy Yang A coal plant in Victoria is the latest in a string of giant new batteries planned for Australia.
AGL Energy plans to build a 200 megawatt battery at its Loy Yang A coal plant in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, the latest in a string of giant batteries set to help ease the power grid to renewables from the current coal base.
The power giant 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 Loy Yang battery will sit alongside the coal station, which supplies 30 per cent of Victoria’s power needs and is due to operate until 2048.
AGL chief executive Brett Redman said increasing investment in batteries mirrored the rush to solar a decade ago.
“Ten years ago a lot of the things we talk about today in terms of batteries and storage - we had the same conversations about solar ten years ago in that it looked difficult, it looked expensive, where would it go, what kind of operational issues would we have,” Mr Redman told a business conference on Monday.
“I think batteries are at the beginning of that same conversation which tells me in ten years time we’ll be very comfortable with that technology, it will be cost effective and it will be ubiquitous.”
AGL said last week it was reviewing a big battery investment at its Liddell coal plant amid uncertainty around the NSW government’s controversial energy blueprint.
The Victorian government has recently broken away from a national policy approach after changing the state’s Electricity Act, adding more transmission and storage generation including a giant Tesla battery to ensure it doesn’t get caught short when coal plants close.
Coal, which currently provides 70 per cent of electricity, will contribute less than a third of supply by 2040 and could be forced out earlier than planned retirement dates as competition from renewables and carbon constraints render plants uneconomic, Australian Energy Market Operator forecasts show.
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