The Hornsdale Power Reserve is located approximately 16 km north of Jamestown in South Australia.
By BELLA PEACOCK
South Australia’s 150 MW / 193.5 Hornsdale Power Reserve, more commonly known as the Tesla Big Battery, will now provide inertia services to Australia’s National Electricity Market after securing approval from the Australian Energy Market Operator. Neoen says it is the first big battery in the world to deliver the service at such a scale.
After two years of extensive trials, Neoen’s Hornsdale Power Reserve now has the capacity to provide an estimated 2,000 megawatt seconds (MWs) of equivalent inertia to South Australia’s grid through Tesla’s Virtual Machine Mode technology.
Known as virtual synchronous machines or grid forming inverters, this technology gives batteries the capacity to help stabilize the grid by providing inertia. Along with frequency control services, inertia is necessary for operating a stable grid and is especially important after major disturbances. Until now, inertia services have only been provided by gas or coal-fired generators and their rapid retirement is causing inertia shortfalls or grid instability – especially in regions like South Australia, where renewable penetration has reached 64% over the last 12 months.
The Hornsdale Power Reserve will now be capable of providing around 15% of the state’s predicted inertia shortfall – a globally significant milestone. The use of the technology at Hornsdale has been approved by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), which has been working closely with Neoen, Tesla and ElectraNet, South Australia’s network operator, to trial the Virtual Machine Mode at Hornsdale following its expansion in 2020.
The companies now completed all the necessary studies, testing and analysis to deploy the technology at scale, with that capacity available from today. “We are proving that our assets can replace fossil fuels not only in the production and storage of electricity, but also through providing all the essential services that a power system needs to function,” Neoen’s Chairman and CEO Xavier Barbaro said. “We are keen to build on this progress, continuing to innovate and to accelerate the transition to renewables in Australia and around the world.”
Continue reading… “Tesla big battery begins providing inertia grid services at scale in world first in Australia”
