The Hornsdale Power Reserve is the world’s first big battery. It provides essential grid-support services (activities grid operators perform) including:
- maintaining system-wide balance
- managing electricity transmission better.
The 150 MW grid-connected energy storage system is owned by Neoen and co-located with the Hornsdale Wind Farm in the Mid North region of South Australia.
The first 100MW/129MWh was completed by Tesla in November 2017. In its first two years of operation the Hornsdale Power Reserve confirmed the benefits associated with grid-scale batteries in the National Electricity Market and saved South Australian consumers over AUD $150 million.
A 50MW/64.5MWh expansion was completed in September 2020. The full 150MW is being upgraded to include Tesla’s Virtual Machine Mode, enabling the battery to provide inertia support services to the electricity grid.
The Hornsdale Power Reserve delivered a windfall profit to its Paris-based owner Neoen in the first half of 2020, largely due to the key role it and other big batteries played when a massive storm blew down the state’s main link to Victoria.
External links
- Hornsdale Power Reserve – South Australia’s Big Battery
- Tesla battery in South Australia expanded by 50 per cent, energy minister lauds benefits – ABC News
- Tesla big battery in South Australia delivers stunning windfall profits – RenewEconomy
- Hornsdale Power Reserve – Wikipedia
