Australian utility AGL Energy has chosen Wärtsilä as one of many two suppliers to ship its grid-scale vitality storage initiatives. The two firms have signed a non-exclusive five-year Large Scale Storage System Frame Agreement to collectively provide storage initiatives.
The settlement will scale back tender time frames for particular person initiatives, enabling quicker challenge schedules and business operation. In addition to the vitality storage and vitality administration companies, AGL Energy chosen Wärtsilä’s owing to its full EPC capabilities.
The growth follows AGL Energy’s 2020 announcement of a plan to develop vitality storage initiatives close to the Loy Yang An influence station in Victoria (200 MW), Liddell energy station (150 MW) and Broken Hill (50 MW) in New South Wales and Torrens Island (250 MW) in South Australia.
The grid-scale vitality storage plans will play a key position in Australian vitality trade’s transition from conventional fossil fuels in direction of cleaner vitality. In 2018, AGL and Wärtsilä signed an EPC contract for the Barker Inlet Power Station (BIPS), a brand new energy plant positioned on Torrens Island close to Adelaide.
The most important position of BIPS is to make sure reliability within the renewable-heavy South Australian energy system by offering balancing capability to handle the variability from renewables.
In addition to versatile engine energy crops, resembling BIPS, vitality storage will play a key position in balancing renewables. Storage can care for brief period balancing, while the versatile engine energy crops can steadiness renewables for an extended period.