South Australia now has 3 big batteries and they made $1 million over two days!

Source: RenewEconomy

The Lake Bonney big battery (20MW/52MWh) in South Australia is now in full production. It combined with the two other big batteries: Hornsdale Power Reserve (100MW/129MWh) and Dalrymple North battery (30MW/8MWh) to jointly make A$1million over two days. This occurred on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 December 2019 when Australia was experiencing the three hottest days ever recorded on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of that week.

The Lake Bonney battery started full production in late November and was therefore ready to support to the eastern Australian grid. During this very hot week, electricity demand was great and consequently the prices went very high. This high pricing also coincided with low electricity generation from wind and solar. As a result, expensive gas and diesel generators were needed to meet demand. Being both dispatchable and fast responding, batteries were well placed to take advantage of this volatility in pricing.

South Australia aims to have net 100% renewable electricity by 2030 so large batteries are seen as a move towards this. Therefore “a fourth battery in South Australia, a 10MW/10MWh battery installation at  Lincoln Gap wind farm is set to join the grid in the new year, while  Sanjeev Gupta’s Simec Zen Energy plans a bigger 135MW battery at Port Augusta and Tilt Renewables is also considering a 20MW/40MWh battery at its Snowtown wind park.” (RenewEconomy).

Read more:
- Infigen says Lake Bonney battery now in full production. RenewEconomy, December 12, 2019.
- South Australia big batteries earn $1 million over two days. RenewEconomy, January 15, 2020.
- Tesla big battery delivered a $22 million profit in 2018. RenewEconomy, May 14 2019.