Big batteries leap to new charging record, displace gas in evening peaks

According to grid data collector NEMLog GPE2, the record for battery charging leaped to 766 MW on Sunday at 12.55pm, up more than 110 MW from its previous peak of 650 MW set in January.

Much of this activity was focused in Victoria, which hosts the country’s biggest fully operating battery, the 300 MW, 450 MWh Victoria Big Battery, and the 150 MW, one hour Hazelwood battery, (pictured above), the first battery to be connected to the site of a former coal fired power station.

Victoria set its own new record for battery charging at the same time, a new peak of 424 MW, although NEMLog noted that this was only slightly above the previous record set last Thursday.

At the time of the new battery charging records, prices across the main grid were mostly negative, at an average of minus $3 a megawatt hour, and particularly in Victoria, where prices had fallen to minus $30/MWh.

The battery charging was soaking up three per cent of total production of the grid of just under 24 gigawatts, with pumped hydro soaking up another 2.8 per cent.

Interestingly, battery storage in Victoria continues to displace gas as a provider into the evening peak, with more than 200 MW of battery output on Saturday night, and zero from the state’s peaking gas generators. Battery storage often supplies more into the evening peak than the gas generators, particularly at lower peak prices.

This is just a taste of the anticipated changes in Australia’s grid in the coming decade along with the growth of wind and solar, and the huge amounts of storage – particularly batteries – that are being added to the network.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/big-batteries-leap-to-new-charging-record-in-australias-main-grid/