AGL to Build Australia’s Largest Energy Storage Facility

AGL Energy Ltd – an Australian integrated energy generation and retail company – has announced that it has got the approval from the state government of New South Wales to build the country’s largest battery storage.

Recently, AGL had proposed to construct a 500MW/2,000MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) as part of the Hunter Energy Hub in New South Wales. This will be hosted at Liddell power station that currently runs on coal but it will be retiring a year after. Australia’s largest utility firm wants to convert the thermal power plant inventory into a storage facility of massive scale.

As per the records, AGL had acquired the Liddell Power Station in 2015 but the company had to spend more than $90 million to improve the reliability of the project.

As per AGL it has been granted a go ahead by the Department of Planning and Environment (DPE), NSW Government. The proposed BESS by the company will be four times the size of the Victorian Big Battery which stands at 300MWh/450MWh and went online just months ago.

As per Chief Operating Officer (COO) of AGL, Markus Brokhof, along with the battery energy storage systems, the Hunter Energy Hub will also host diverse facilities like wind generation, solar, pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), a waste-to-energy plant and a green hydrogen pilot plant.

Brokhof said, “As Australia moves forward and we increase our reliance on renewable generation, batteries will be critical in providing the storage needed to maintain a consistent, reliable and affordable energy system.”

In 2019, the company had published its ‘Climate statement and commitments’ plan wherein it had announced that it will build 850MW of new battery storage systems at the coal based power plant sites by 2024. The announcement also featured developing the 500MW BESS in the Hunter Energy Hub.

AGL has also said that the 250MW BESS project at Torrens Island natural gas plant situated in South Australia is under construction. The development of the BESS began in 2021. It added that construction will also begin soon in two other projects in Broken Hill in NSW and at Loy Yang coal power plant site in Victoria.