Alinta unveils $45m Pilbara battery

A new utility-scale battery launched in the Pilbara by Alinta Energy today will be Australia’s second biggest, behind Elon Musk’s Tesla battery in South Australia.

The battery, which has 30 megawatts of capacity and can store 11.4 megawatt hours of power, was installed at the Newman gas power station, which has existing capacity of 178MW and provides electricity to the Roy Hill mine.

For comparison, Tesla’s South Australian battery has capacity of 100MW and 129MWh, while the Snowy Hydro phase two pumped storage scheme will have capacity of 2000MW.

Alinta’s battery cost $45 million and unlike Tesla’s battery, which was contracted by the SA government, was developed commercially.

UGL was engineering, procurement and construction contractor while South Korean business Kokam and ABB Australia supplied the storage system.

The benefit of the battery will be providing reserve power, frequency control, voltage regulation and a reduction of peak demand for the gas system.

Alinta chief executive Jeff Dimery said the battery was a smart solution to boost capacity and reliability.

“For the iron ore industry in the Pilbara, generating hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars’ worth of output an hour, a reliable energy supply is crucial,” he said.

“This battery will let us better handle peak demand periods, increase reliability for our customers and lower our emissions as a result.

“The project demonstrates our commitment to finding innovative ways to integrate our existing thermal generation portfolio into an evolving market that will incorporate more renewable generation and other disruptive technologies, with an emphasis on sustainability, reliability and affordability of supply.”