A battery project that can reactively stabilise the grid has come online in New South Wales (NSW) in Australia.

The Waratah Super Battery Project is a grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) equipped with a control system to prevent blackouts and stabilise the grid. Located at the site of a former coal-fired power station in NSW, around half of the battery’s 850MW capacity has come online, with the remainder expected later this year. 

The AUS$1bn project is more than just a grid-scale BESS providing power to homes and businesses in the region – it will also be used to increase network capacity and act as a ‘shock absorber’ during power line outages.

It does this through a system integrity protection scheme (SIPS). In the event of a power line outage due to an event such as a lightning strike or bushfire, the SIPS control system will send a signal to the battery to deliver more energy to the grid. At the same time, it will signal paired generators to reduce their output to balance the flow of electricity.

Effectively operating as a standby battery, power is injected into the grid to stabilise it, avoiding the risk of blackouts. 

The SIPS monitors 36 transmission lines in real time and will instantly respond to system events when they occur.

During normal operation, the project enables more energy to flow through existing infrastructure by rapidly responding to system events, such as faults or fluctuations. 

According to the project, this supports faster delivery of power from generators to homes and businesses than would be possible through building new transmission lines.

The project is overseen by NSW government body EnergyCo, with Akaysha Energy responsible for building, operating and maintaining the BESS in collaboration with network operator Transgrid.

Nick Carter, CEO of Akaysha Energy, said: “Delivering this scale of infrastructure on such an accelerated timeline is no small feat, and we are honoured to have been entrusted to deliver a project of such significance to NSW’s energy security.”

Hannah McCaughey, chief executive of EnergyCo, said: “Switching on the Waratah Super Battery Project is a win for our grid and a win for households and businesses across NSW.

“This is the first of our projects to go into operation, and there are many more to come. We look forward to more milestones in our renewable energy zones this year.”

When the battery project reaches full capacity later this year it will be capable of providing 850 megawatts for two hours. 

An overview of how the project works is depicted here: