Neoen has provided a notice to proceed to a consortium to begin construction of its 200MW Blyth Battery project in South Australia.
The consortium comprises Elecnor, the balance of plant contractor, and NHOA, a battery storage specialist.
The 200MW/400 megawatt hour Blyth Battery in the Mid North region of South Australia is expected to start operating in 2025.
The battery will be located next to the Blyth West substation and will be connected to ElectraNet’s transmission network.
In line with its develop-to-own business model, Neoen will be the long-term owner and operator of the asset.
Blyth Battery will mainly be deployed in combination with Neoen’s Goyder South Stage 1 wind farm to deliver 70MW of renewable baseload energy to mining company BHP.
The energy will power BHP’s Olympic Dam operations in South Australia, one of the world’s most significant deposits of copper, gold and uranium.
As a result of support from ARENA’s recently announced Large Scale Battery Storage Funding Round, the asset will ultimately be equipped with grid-forming inverter technology, allowing it to provide system stability services traditionally provided by synchronous generation such as coal and gas Blyth Battery is Neoen’s fifth big battery in the National Electricity Market, bringing the company’s total Australian assets close to 3GW in operation or under construction with its storage portfolio approaching 1GW.
Neoen is the country’s leading owner of big batteries, it already owns and operates the 300MW/450MWh Victorian Big Battery and the 150MW/193.5MWh Hornsdale Power Reserve, whilst its 100MW/200MWh Capital Battery and 200MW/400MWh Western Downs Battery are under construction.
Louis de Sambucy, Neoen Australia’s Managing Director, said: “We are thrilled to be starting construction of Blyth Battery and to be approaching 3 GW of assets in operation or under construction in Australia.
“We would like to thank NHOA and Elecnor for their hard work and commitment, and ARENA for their trust and support. We are particularly proud of our ability to combine Blyth Battery, Goyder South wind energy and our expertise in energy management to power BHP’s Olympic Dam with renewable baseload.”