Territory Generation’s (TGen) Alice Springs Energy Storage Project is a case study for how a battery energy storage system (BESS) can improve the reliability and sustainability of an electricity network.

The Alice Springs electricity network and generating plant face a number of challenges with respect to network stability and efficient operation. The network has a highly variable load profile and a high penetration of solar PV. The intermittent nature of solar generation due to cloud cover, and the variable nature of the network load, causes ramping up and down of thermal plant, and sharp changes in load on the network can cause frequency instability. Network frequency is particularly unstable during contingency events such as loss of a gas generator, which can lead to load shedding. Relatively large amounts of thermal spinning reserve is required to counter the solar intermittency and to provide backup for contingency events which is inefficient, consumes fossil fuels and is expensive. Greater solar PV penetration without technological enablers (e.g. energy storage) will exacerbate these issues.

A 5 MW / 4.3 MWh BESS is being implemented to provide a number of benefits including effective smoothing of variable solar generation to reduce the ramping required from thermal generation, prevention of load shedding during contingency events through the provision of frequency control ancillary services (FCAS), reduction of the spinning reserve required of the network’s thermal generation, and provision of peak shaving for periods of high peak load in order to defer network upgrades.

TGen and Aurecon developed the optimal BESS configuration through extensive network modelling and then procured the system via a robust competitive procurement process. The BESS is due for commercial operation in early 2018 and will be a case study for BESS integration in small to medium island networks.