Wartsila has been chosen to deliver one of Australia’s largest energy storage systems, as part of the third stage of Origin’s Eraring battery project in New South Wales.
For this stage of the Eraring battery facility at Origin’s Eraring power station Wartsila will install an additional 700 megawatt hours (MWh) of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity directly to the Eraring Stage 1 system.
This project continues the successful partnership between Wartsila and Origin, bringing the Eraring facility’s total capacity to 700MW/2800MWh.
This makes it the largest battery project in Australia.
The order was booked in Q4 2024.
“The scale of this project is impressive, delivering the largest total dispatch duration of an operating battery or project under construction in the Southern Hemisphere.
“At 2 800 MWh, when cycled once a day, the Eraring battery will dispatch enough energy to power more than 150 000 New South Wales households annually, helping to firm variable supply from wind and solar,” said Greg Jarvis, Head of Energy Supply and Operations at Origin.
The Eraring battery will connect to Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM), enhancing energy security and reliability in New South Wales as renewable energy supply increases.
With this extension, the Eraring 1 facility will double the length of time it can store energy.
Stage 1 and 3 will operate in grid-following mode, with the potential to switch operation into grid-forming in the future, providing the capability to supply a variety of system strength and system restart ancillary services.
Stage 2 will operate in grid-forming mode at the time of commercial operation.
Origin selected Wartsila for Stage 1 of the project in 2023 and Stage 2 earlier in 2024.
Completion of Stage 3 is expected alongside Stage 1 at the end of 2025.
Stage 2 is expected to come online in the beginning of 2027.