Neoen has been awarded a 197MW/four-hour capacity services contract by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) in a competitive tender initiated by the Western Australian Coordinator of Energy.
The AEMO Non-Co-optimised Essential System Services (NCESS) contract will run for a period of two years from 1 October 2024.
It will provide 197MW of storage capacity for four hours, charging during the day and then discharging across the evening peak.
The service will be delivered by Stage 1 of Collie Battery, sized at 219MW/877MWh and consisting of 224 Tesla Megapack 2XL units.
The battery will be located near the town of Collie, on the country of the Wilman people of the Bibbulmun nation, in the south-west region of Western Australia (WA).
The project, which Neoen originated in 2021, received development approval for a total of 1GW/4GWh in December 2022.
It will connect to Western Power’s Shotts Terminal substation, which is part of the South-West Interconnected System (SWIS), a separate network to the one on the eastern coast of Australia.
Neoen has provided notices to proceed to Tesla and construction contractor UGL (a member of the CIMIC Group) signalling the start of construction for Stage 1 of Collie Battery.
It is expected to be operational in Q4 2024.
The battery is Neoen’s first major project in WA and will also be its first four-hour long duration battery globally.
This is intended to address the risks AEMO has identified relating to the retirement of coal power plants and increasingly high penetration of rooftop solar in Western Australia.