ACEN’s energy storage project in NSW commences construction

Civil and base electrical work will begin in the coming months.

ACEN Australia has commenced construction of the first large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) in the New England region of New South Wales.

Located in the company’s 720 megawatt (MW) New England Solar project, the 400 megawatt-hour (MWh) BESS will also involve the integration of advanced grid-forming inverters to provide system strength, stability, and network security services, ACEN said.

ACEN Australia Head of Construction and Engineering Tim Greenaway said geotechnical and design work is almost complete, whilst the installation of electrical infrastructure to connect the battery is well underway.

“We expect the civil and base electrical work for the BESS to begin over the next month or two, ready for the delivery of the battery modules in second half of the year,” Greenaway said.

The facility will have an expanded switching yard to connect the battery system and second stage of the solar project to Transgrid’s transmission network. There will also be a 250 MVA electrical transformer to support the battery system.

The 400 MWh battery project will be co-located on the Stage 1 solar project site. It will provide 200 MWh of energy over a two-hour period.

A total of 1,400 MW/2 hours of storage capacity has been approved for the project.