Storage

Grid scale batteries will help to keep the grid stable by responding to shortages, using excess energy stored from wind and solar to bolster the grid when demand outstrips supply.

In the future power system, the value of baseload will decrease. Variable renewable power generation can ideally be combined with smart-grid technologies, demand response, energy storage and more flexible generation technologies.

In September 2024, the Commonwealth Minister for Climate Change and Energy the Hon Chris Bowen announced EnergyAustralia’s 350MW/1400MWh Wooreen Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to be located at the gas-fired Jeeralang power station, Hazelwood North, Latrobe Valley.

With the capacity to power 230,000 households for up to four hours at a time. This project is part of EnergyAustralia’s investment in additional capacity prior to the closure of the Yallourn coal-fired power station in 2028. 

In June 2023, the ENGIE Hazelwood Battery Energy Storage System (HBESS) was commissioned, operating on the site of the former Hazelwood Power Station, in the Latrobe Valley. This battery can store the equivalent of one hour of energy generation from rooftop solar systems from 30,000 homes.

Victoria is also the home of the 300-megawatt Victorian Big Battery, the largest lithium-ion battery in the southern hemisphere.

Victoria is leading the nation in neighbourhood-scale batteries, with the Victorian Budget 2023/24 investing $42.2 million to install 100 new neighbourhood batteries at targeted locations across Victoria – tripling the number of homes with access to a battery and providing crucial extra storage capacity for local communities.

At household level, the Solar Homes Program has already helped more than 13,800 Victorian households install their own batteries to maximise the benefits of rooftop solar.

Visit Victoria’s Renewable Energy and Storage Targets to learn more.