Hornsdale Power Reserve
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Hornsdale Power Reserve is a 150 MW (194 MWh) grid-connected
energy storage system Energy storage is the capture of energy produced at one time for use at a later time to reduce imbalances between energy demand and energy production. A device that stores energy is generally called an accumulator or battery. Energy comes in ...
owned by
Neoen Neoen is a French producer of exclusively renewable energy headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 2008, it develops, finances, builds and operates solar power plants, wind farms and energy storage solutions. As at 31 December 2021, the com ...
co-located with the Hornsdale Wind Farm in the
Mid North The Mid North is a region of South Australia, north of the Adelaide Plains and south of the Far North and the outback. It is generally accepted to extend from Spencer Gulf east to the Barrier Highway, including the coastal plain, the southern ...
region of
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, also owned by Neoen. The original installation in 2017 was the
largest Large means of great size. Large may also refer to: Mathematics * Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics * Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers * Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms (o ...
lithium-ion battery A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also se ...
in the world at 129 MWh and 100 MW. It was expanded in 2020 to 194 MWh at 150 MW. Despite the expansion, it lost that title in August 2020 to the
Gateway Energy Storage Gateway Energy Storage is a large-scale lithium-ion battery, operated by grid infrastructure developer LS Power. It has a storage capacity of 250 MWh, and it is located in Otay Mesa, California, on the outskirts of San Diego. It uses cells from ...
in California, USA. The larger
Victorian Big Battery The Victorian Big Battery is a grid-connected battery electricity storage facility adjacent to the Moorabool Terminal Station ( substation) near Geelong in Victoria, Australia. The battery provides 450 MWh of storage and can discharge at 300 MW ...
began operations in December 2021. During 2017
Tesla, Inc. Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Tesla designs and manufactures electric vehicles (electric cars and trucks), battery energy storage from home to grid- ...
won the contract and built the Hornsdale Power Reserve, for a capital cost of A$90 million, leading to the colloquial Tesla big battery name. In November 2019, Neoen confirmed that it was increasing capacity by a further 50MW/64.5MWh to a combined 193.5 MWh. The increased storage capacity was installed by March 23, 2020, and the increased power became operational in early September 2020.


Construction

South Australia received 90 proposals and considered 5 projects to build a grid-connected battery to increase grid stability under adverse weather events. This will enable less use of gas-fired generators to provide grid stability.
Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...
placed a wager that the battery would be completed within "100 days from contract signature", otherwise the battery would be free. Tesla had already begun construction, and some units were already operational by 29 September 2017, the time the grid contract was signed. The battery construction was completed and testing began on 25 November 2017. It was connected to the grid on 1 December 2017. The days between grid contract and completion easily beat Musk's wager of "100 days from contract signature", which started when a grid connection agreement was signed with
ElectraNet Electranet is a proposed smart electric grid which would allow people to sell electricity into the grid without any artificial caps. It was proposed in an op-ed article Al Gore wrote in a "My Turn" column for ''Newsweek'' in 2006. Like the inter ...
on 29 September 2017, days after Musk's offer on 10 March ( in Australia). Samsung 21700-size cells are used.


Expansion

In November 2019, Neoen announced that it would increase the battery capacity by 50%. The expansion cost €53 million ($A82 million, whereas had been expected), funded by from the state government, from
ARENA An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...
and up to in cheap loans through the
Clean Energy Finance Corporation The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is an Australian Government-owned Green Bank that was established to facilitate increased flows of finance into the clean energy sector. As a specialist investor the CEFC at the centre of efforts to hel ...
. The expansion was completed by
Aurecon Aurecon is an engineering, management, design, planning, project management, consulting and advisory company based in Australia, with operations in the Middle East, New Zealand and South East Asia. History Formed through the merger of three ...
on 2 September 2020, increasing its impact in the South Australia grid. The battery receives $4 million per year for essential grid security services.


Operation

It is owned and operated by Neoen, with the
state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...
having the right to call on the stored power under certain circumstances. Phase one provided a total of of storage capable of discharge at into the power grid, which is contractually divided into two parts: # 70 MW running for 10 minutes (11.7 MWh) is contracted to the government to provide stability to the grid (
grid services Ancillary services are the services necessary to support the transmission of electric power from generators to consumers given the obligations of control areas and transmission utilities within those control areas to maintain reliable operations of ...
) and prevent load-shedding blackouts while other generators are started in the event of sudden drops in wind or other network issues. This service reduced the cost of grid services to the Australian Energy Market Operator by 90% in its first 4 months. # 30 MW for 3 hours (90 MWh) is used by Neoen for
load management Load management, also known as demand-side management (DSM), is the process of balancing the supply of electricity on the network with the electrical load by adjusting or controlling the load rather than the power station output. This can be ach ...
to store energy when prices are low and sell it when demand is high. On 14 December 2017, at 1:58:59 am, the HPR reacted when unit A3 at
Loy Yang Power Station The Loy Yang Power Station is a brown coal- fired thermal power station located on the outskirts of the city of Traralgon, in south-eastern Victoria, Australia. It consists of two sections, known as Loy Yang A (4 units) and Loy Yang B (2 units). ...
tripped. As its generators spun down over the next 30 seconds, the loss of its 560 MW of base power caused a dip in the system frequency. By 1:59:19, the frequency had fallen to 49.8 Hz, and triggered HPR's response, injecting 7.3 MW into the grid and effectively helping to stabilise the system before the
Gladstone Power Station The Gladstone Power Station is a power station at Callemondah, Gladstone, Queensland, Australia. It is Queensland's largest power station, with six coal powered steam turbines generating a maximum of 1,680  MW of electricity. Power from ...
was able to respond at 1:59:27. This
synchronverter Synchronverters or virtual synchronous generators are inverters which mimic synchronous generators (SG) to provide "synthetic inertia" for ancillary services in electric power systems. Inertia is a property of standard synchronous generators as ...
reaction is a built-in feature, but had not previously been effectively demonstrated. On 25 May 2021, HPR has reported a successful real-life test of its new “virtual machine mode” by demonstrating an inertial response from a small selection of trial inverters, following the grid disturbances created by events in Queensland.


Revenues from operation

During two days in January 2018 when the wholesale spot price for electricity in South Australia rose due to hot weather, the battery made its owners an estimated () as they sold power from the battery to the grid for a price of around /MWh. Based on the first six months of operation, the reserve is estimated to earn about per year. (This is a third-party estimate, based on spot energy prices; it is possible that the HPR has contracted to provide power at a lower price, in exchange for a more certain income stream.) After six months of operation, the Hornsdale Power Reserve was responsible for 55% of frequency control and ancillary services in South Australia. The battery usually
arbitrage In economics and finance, arbitrage (, ) is the practice of taking advantage of a difference in prices in two or more markets; striking a combination of matching deals to capitalise on the difference, the profit being the difference between the ...
s 30 MW or less, but in May 2019 began charging and discharging at around 80 MW and for longer than usual, increasing wind power production by reducing curtailment. FCAS is the main source of revenue. When the
Heywood interconnector The Heywood interconnector is a 275 kV AC overhead electricity transmission line with two circuits connecting the electricity grids in South Australia and Victoria, two states of Australia. Both are part of the National Electricity Market. The no ...
failed for 18 days in January 2020, HPR provided grid support while limiting power prices. This event was the main contributor to Neoen's €30 million ($A46.3 million) operating profit from Australian battery storage in 2020.


Benefits for the consumers

By the end of 2018, it was estimated that the Power Reserve had saved in costs, mostly in eliminating the need for a fuel-powered 35 MW Frequency Control Ancillary Service. In 2019, grid costs were reduced by $116 million due to the operation of HPR. Almost all of the savings delivered by the Hornsdale battery came from its role in frequency and ancillary control markets, where HPR put downward pressure on total prices.


Controversy

On September 23, 2021, the Australian government sued Neoen SA, saying the French firm's Tesla "Big Battery" in South Australia did not provide backup power during four months in 2019 for which it had received payment.


See also

*
Battery storage power station A battery storage power station is a type of energy storage power station that uses a group of batteries to store electrical energy. Battery storage is the fastest responding dispatchable source of power on electric grids, and it is used to stab ...


References


External links


Hornsdale Power Reserve Upgrade

energypost.eu – Tesla big battery defies sceptics, sends industry bananas over performance

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{{Energy in South Australia Energy storage projects Electric power infrastructure in South Australia Mid North (South Australia)