Minister for Energy Dr Megan Woods attended an event to officially inaugurate the first grid-scale battery energy storage system in New Zealand, hosted by energy retailer and project owner Mercury Energy.
The project, based around a Tesla Powerpack 2 battery system was revealed to be under development in January this year. Energy-Storage.news reported at the time that the 1MW / 2MWh of Powerpacks is connected to existing pumped hydro facilities in South Auckland and used by Mercury’s R&D centre as part of a trial of scalable grid-connected batteries.
Back in January, Mercury said battery capacity at the installation itself could be added to at a later date, and that the system, with a cost of close to NZ$3 million (US$2.01 million), would trial the redispatch of electricity generated by hydro as well as the possibility of using the Powerpacks in energy trading markets. A Mercury announcement this morning also said the project could be used to investigate the redispatch of geothermal energy.
“We see battery storage as playing an increasingly important role in providing a reliable supply of electricity in New Zealand, as we increase our reliance on wind and solar to generate our electricity,” John Clarke, general manager at grid operator Transpower, said.
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“We look forward to continuing to work with Mercury throughout the trial and gather key learnings to enable the transition to New Zealand’s sustainable energy future”.
