Energy Vault Holdings, Inc., a leader in sustainable grid-scale energy storage solutions, and ACEN Australia, have announced the primary contractual agreements for two battery energy storage system (BESS) deployments, totaling 400 MWh in Australia.
They anticipate that the construction on both projects will commence in 2024, with commercial operations expected in 2025 and 2026. The agreements are currently undergoing final contract procedural preparation and are expected to be formally executed and closed within the first half of May 2024.
As per the agreement, Energy Vault will deploy both a 50 MW/100 MWh BESS and a 150 MW/300 MWh BESS at ACEN Australia’s 720 MW New England Solar, one of the largest solar projects participating in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM).
They will charge and discharge the BESS daily, with the intention of dispatching stored renewable energy during peak consumption hours. This strategy aims to help meet New South Wales’ high demand while simultaneously reducing the region’s reliance on coal-fired power generation.
Currently backed by the NSW Government’s Emerging Energy Program, the New England BESS project is part of ACEN’s broader strategy in Australia, where they are actively developing over 1 GW of projects.
ACEN Australia’s New England Solar, situated near Uralla, finalized the first stage of construction in 2023, successfully bringing 400 MW of solar generation online. Once the second stage is completed, the site will produce a total of 1800 GWh of renewable electricity annually.
In 2023, ACEN Australia obtained a 20-year Long Term Energy Service Agreement (LTESA) for New England Solar in the NSW Government’s inaugural renewable energy and storage auction.
The LTESA serves as a risk management mechanism, providing support to the project in case the National Electricity Market experiences a prolonged period of low prices.
Robert Piconi, Chairman and CEO of Energy Vault, expressed his pride in ensuring the reliable and cost-effective provision of clean power from ACEN Australia’s New England Solar to the NSW region.
The BESS deployments, developed under Energy Vault’s B-VAULT™ suite of fully integrated battery energy storage solutions, will be coupled with a Siemens S120 inverter. This inverter enables advanced grid support functionalities such as voltage and frequency ride-through, grid support during disturbances, and reactive power control.
The use of the Siemens S120 inverter, combined with Energy Vault’s proprietary X-Vault integration platform and Vault-OS Energy Management System, will allow for superior energy management capabilities.
Piconi stated that the deployments and their tight timelines demonstrate Energy Vault’s commitment to a customer-centric approach to energy storage and the growing global demand for reliable and effective energy storage solutions. He views today’s agreement as the first step in a long and fruitful relationship with ACEN and their renewable power generation projects.