Energy storage developer and system integrator Energy Vault has been tapped by Victoria’s State Electricity Commission (SEC) to deliver a 100MW/200MWh government-owned battery energy storage system (BESS) in Australia.
Energy Vault revealed yesterday (13 February) that it will supply the system for the SEC Renewable Energy Park, a 100% publicly owned utility-scale renewable energy project in Victoria’s west, near Horsham, around 300km northwest of the state capital Melbourne.
The SEC is working with developer OX2 to build the energy park in two stages. As reported by our sister site PV Tech, the first stage will involve a 119MW solar PV plant comprising more than 212,000 solar modules. The project will cost around AU$370 million (US$240 million) to fully develop. OX2 was acquired by investment firm EQT last year.
It is hoped the SEC Renewable Energy Park will come online in 2027 and will primarily be used to supply 100% renewable electricity to Victorian government schools, hospitals and offices.
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Energy Vault, which also provides a proprietary gravity energy storage technology, will build the BESS using its X-Vault integration platform and its UL9540 and AS3000 certified B-VAULT product. The organisation will also utilise its Vault-OS Energy Management System to control, manage and optimise the BESS operations.
Energy Vault’s system architecture provides customer optionality with both battery and inverter suppliers, while AC-coupled and DC-coupled configurations provide the drop-in flexibility needed for any project, it said.
Robert Piconi, chairman and CEO of Energy Vault, hailed the partnership as “well-aligned” with the company’s mission.
“As our first government collaboration, this publicly-owned project is well-aligned with our mission to accelerate the clean energy transition through sustainable and efficient energy storage solutions and will play a pivotal role in ensuring the availability of renewable energy,” Piconi added.
Renewable energy developer Acen Australia appointed Energy Vault last yeare to provide a 200MW/400MWh BESS for its New England project in New South Wales. This would also be co-located alongside a 720MW solar PV power plant.
In 2022, the company was selected to provide the BESS at Victoria’s 330MW Meadow Creek solar PV plant.
Victoria’s SEC brings public-owned energy to the state
The SEC previously had a major role in Victoria’s energy sector, being the sole agency for generation, transmission, distribution and supply, before it was privatised by former Victoria premier Jeff Kennett and the Liberal Party in 1994.
This led to the SEC being divided into five distribution and retail companies, five generation companies and a transmission organisation.
However, in 2022, Daniel Andrews, who served as premier of Victoria between 2014 and 2023, and leader of the Labor Party, pledged to revive the SEC as part of the party’s election manifesto to support the state’s goal of achieving 95% renewable energy by 2035.
Last year, the ‘Constitution Amendment (SEC) Bill 2023’ passed the Victorian Parliament. It enshrines the SEC in the constitution and guarantees future public ownership of renewable energy assets.
One such asset is the Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub, which it is pursuing alongside the SEC Renewable Energy Park. This complex includes a 12.5MW solar PV plant and a co-located 1,200MW/2,400MWh BESS, which will be constructed in two phases and will cost around AU$1 billion.
Construction on the Melbourne hub started in early September 2024, with the first 444 Tesla Megapack battery components having been installed.
