Construction has been completed on the second-largest battery energy storage system (BESS) in the Australian state of Victoria.
The 200MW/400MWh Rangebank BESS, developed via a collaboration between energy storage developer Eku Energy and Shell Energy, an integrated energy services subsidiary of the fossil fuel major, is second in size to the 300MW/450MWh Victorian Big Battery.
Construction on the Rangebank BESS, located in Cranbourne, southeast Melbourne, started in July 2023. Victoria’s energy and resources minister, Lily d’Ambrosio, was among dignitaries in attendance to help ceremonially mark the start of work on the project at Rangebank Business Park in Cranbourne, southeast Melbourne.
The BESS is connected to the Victorian Shared Transmission System grid via the existing Cranbourne Terminal Station. Fluence, a global energy storage solutions and services provider, supplied the BESS and will also service and maintain it.
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Shell Energy will secure 100% of the BESS capacity over the next 20 years as part of a pre-agreed tolling agreement. Commenting on the battery’s completion, Tony Keeling, CEO of Shell Energy Australia, hailed the project as an important addition to the company’s global as well as regional portfolio.
“Rangebank BESS is an important addition to Shell Energy’s battery portfolio being our first grid-scale battery investment in Victoria and Shell’s first direct equity investment in a utility-scale BESS globally. It will help support a more resilient power system in Victoria, and a more reliable energy supply for our customers as the energy market continues to evolve,” Keeling said.
Shell Energy and Eku Energy announced plans for the Rangebank BESS in March 2023. Perfection Private, the business park’s owner, is also a minority equity investor.
It is worth noting that Victoria has several energy storage targets in place, including having at least 2.6GW of capacity by 2030, with this to be increased to at least 6.3GW by 2035.
Eku Energy’s growing energy storage portfolio
Eku Energy is an energy storage development platform that was launched through the Macquarie Asset Management-owned Green Investment Group (GIG) in late 2022.
The company is behind the development of the Williamsdale BESS in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Eku Energy achieved financial close on the 250MW/500MWh 2-hour duration battery in early November and started construction on 22 November. At the time of reporting, the Williamsdale BESS is the largest in the ACT.
Earlier this year, the company discussed how its Australian projects are developed under a variety of different business models, such as merchant, in an exclusive interview on Energy.Storage.news Premium.
Rachel Rundle, Eku Energy’s senior manager for policy and regulation in the APAC region, said that Eku Energy takes each project on a case-by-case basis, stating that it’s impossible to say what the commercial and revenue for schemes may look like. However, the contribution the schemes could bring to the country’s decarbonisation is unparalleled.
“We definitely see that with all the system challenges that we as a sector are aware of, through all these thermal plants coming out of the system, batteries are really well-placed to provide those services: whether it be system strength, whether it be synthetic inertia, voltage support, batteries are sort of that multi-tool asset,” Rundle said.
