French renewable energy and energy storage developer Neoen has signed a contract with Australian utility AGL, which will use the services provided by a battery storage system built by Neoen in Canberra under the name "Battery Virtual Service". ".
Neoen has signed a seven-year 70MW virtual service agreement for this purpose. AGL's 100MW/200MWh battery energy storage project currently being deployed in Canberra will have 70MW/140MWh for AGL's use.
This arrangement is unique in that AGL will use the energy storage system to participate in the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM) through its NSW grid, while the use of the energy storage project is the same as that of Neoen in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). ) deploying the Capital Battery battery energy storage system is completely different.
This is the first deal of its kind for what Neoen Australia chief executive Louisde Sambucy calls an "innovative bespoke solution".
"The Battery Virtual Service is an ideal tool that will become Neoen's core product and a key element in our continued expansion of our customer offerings," he said.
Markus Brokhof, chief operating officer of AGL, said the deal will enable companies to add flexible capacity to meet customers' energy needs to ensure they continue to have access to affordable and reliable energy.
AGL will be able to virtually charge or discharge within the five-minute settlement (5MS) transaction interval recently introduced into Australia's National Electricity Market (NEM), helping it to offset mismatches between the timing of solar power facilities and energy demand and during early evening demand peaks duck curve.
Neoen, the developer and owner of Australia's grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) facility, has developed and deployed the landmark 150MW/193.5MWh Hornsdale battery energy storage system in South Australia, and most recently The 300MW/450MWh Victorian Big Battery battery energy storage system opened.
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government has awarded Neoen a contract to deploy a battery storage system with the company's 576MW battery storage portfolio now operating or under construction in Australia. Construction work began in December last year and is scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2023.
Neoen stressed that the Capital Battery battery storage system will continue to be able to provide services under the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) tender agreement.