Another big battery in Australia has changed our thinking about the grid

Source: RenewEconomy

We all know about the success of the big Tesla battery in South Australia. “But another big battery, the Newman battery storage project, installed just over a year ago in a private-only grid in the Pilbara serving mostly mining industry customers in Australia’s north-west is having just as profound an impact on the way people think about the grid…..

…..Like the Neoen/Tesla big battery, the Newman battery has shown that it is faster, smarter, cheaper, and more reliable than the fossil fuel generators around it…….In this instance, the battery has done what most experts thought it could not do – provide sufficient inertia to the local grid in the absence of thermal generators…..

…...And its speed of response has all but eliminated the supply interruptions that were relatively common in the small grid that relies on comparatively slow gas generators. And it has led to a significant saving on “back-up” gas generation.”

Read more: The “other” big battery that has quietly changed thinking about the grid. RenewEconomy, October 15, 2018.