The state’s vitality minister, Penny Sharpe, mentioned that when constructed and linked, the mission would “forestall a repeat” of a current emergency state of affairs the Far West area of New South Wales was plunged into after extreme storms on 17 October prompted disruption to energy provides in Damaged Hill and surrounding communities.
A Crown Lands settlement is a lease giving the holder unique permission to occupy and use state-owned land for a particular goal and time period beneath the NSW Crown Land Administration Act 2016.
The lease signed with the Crown Lands workplace on the Division of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) provides Hydrostor use of the positioning in Damaged Hill for 65 years.
The long-duration vitality storage (LDES) asset would play into the Nationwide Electrical energy Market (NEM), whereas a contract has already been signed with transmission system operator (TSO) Transgrid in 2022 for 250MWh of its capability.
Transgrid chosen the mission by a aggressive course of to discover a most well-liked choice to again up the city’s electrical energy provide. Damaged Hill is a historic mining area, and Hydrostor CEO Curtis VanWalleghem famous in an Power-Storage.information interview that its baseload and peaking capability is usually equipped at the moment by ageing diesel mills.
Claimed effectivity and environmental enhancements
Hydrostor holds the IP for the proprietary A-CAES expertise. VanWalleghem claimed that whereas typical CAES initiatives run reliably, their drawbacks embody a reliance on pure gasoline to warmth air earlier than its enlargement because the methods discharge vitality.
A-CAES makes use of a thermal administration system which closes the loop of heating and cooling. Warmth produced throughout compression is captured as a substitute of vented after which saved in scorching water, which is used to pre-heat the air earlier than its enlargement.
One other claimed innovation is that whereas CAES historically used salt caverns to retailer the compressed air, Hydrostor’s design permits the air to be saved in laborious rock caverns. These caverns are sometimes used within the mining and hydrocarbon industries, and so present mine websites, such because the Potosi mine at Silver Metropolis in NSW, will be repurposed.
Simply over a 12 months in the past, the Canadian tech firm signed a binding settlement with mining agency Perilya for the usage of present mine belongings and infrastructure at Potosi.
State gunning for 28GWh long-duration storage by 2034
In mid-October, extreme storm circumstances destroyed seven of Transgrid’s transmission towers in Damaged Hill and the Far West area of NSW, considerably disrupting the electrical energy provide within the city and its surrounding communities.
Backup mills kicked in, however deliberate and unplanned outages occurred to assist maintain it operating, whereas a brand new 50MW/100MWh battery vitality storage system (BESS) in Damaged Hill owned by utility AGL was known as into motion by Transgrid.
“Latest occasions within the Far West area of NSW have demonstrated the necessity for long-duration storage to safe vitality provide for Damaged Hill and the Far West,” NSW vitality minister Penny Sharpe mentioned at the moment of the cope with Hydrostor.
“This mission will change the older large-scale back-up diesel generator, stopping a repeat of the current vitality emergency within the Far West area of NSW,” Sharpe mentioned, including that the Silver Metropolis A-CAES system would “make Damaged Hill a renewable vitality chief,” placing extra clear vitality into the state’s vitality combine and serving to decrease energy costs.
Along with some monetary assist by the NSW Rising Power Alternatives Program, Hydrostor’s mission has additionally acquired funding assist at federal stage, from the Australian Renewable Power Company (ARENA). ARENA pledged AU$49 million (US$29 million) in the direction of the projected whole value of AU$652 million in 2022.
Silver Metropolis additionally has a Lengthy Time period Power Service Settlement (LTESA) contract for beneath a NSW state coverage roadmap, awarded to Hydrostor by AEMO Providers in late 2023.
CEO VanWalleghem described the contract to supply firming capability to the grid as “a giant vote of confidence in not solely long-duration vitality storage, but in addition our compressed air resolution as a key expertise pathway for decarbonisation and grid reliability throughout Australia.”
New South Wales vitality minister Sharpe lately introduced plans to legislate a 28GWh by 2034 long-duration vitality storage goal for the state. Its present goal is for 2GW of 8-hour period storage (16GWh) by 2030, beneath the NSW Electrical energy Infrastructure Roadmap 20-year plan.
The primary contract for LDES beneath a authorities biannual tender course of as set out within the Roadmap was awarded in 2023 to RWE for a 50MW/400MWh lithium-ion (Li-ion) BESS mission.
RWE has since made the Closing Funding Choice (FID) to take that mission into development, whereas the state authorities has given Essential State Vital Infrastructure standing to 3 long-duration pumped hydro vitality storage (PHES) initiatives in growth.
