Australian renewable energy developer Genex Power has achieved financial close on what looks likely to be the country’s first new pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) plant in nearly 40 years.

A pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) project at a former gold mine in Queensland, Australia which would be able to store 250MW of power for up to eight hours has raised significant funding in the past few days.

Australian utility AGL has furthered its plans to develop 850MW of large-scale battery storage across a number of sites in the country, announcing a new project in Victoria.

The acquisition of Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) saw energy storage technology provider and system integrator Fluence take on AMS’ artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled optimised bidding software for energy storage and renewable energy assets. Energy-Storage.news editor Andy Colthorpe asked Fluence CTO Brett Galura and former AMS CEO Seyed H. Madaeni some key questions about the acquisition.

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) announced today that five minute settlement windows for spot prices in the National Electricity Market (NEM) will be implemented from 21 October 2021.

Australia’s national Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has said it will commit AU$50 million (US$34.14 million) to help fund expansion of landmark Hornsdale battery project in South Australia.

The capabilities of virtual power plants (VPPs) to provide capacity as well as frequency regulation services to the grid in Australia will be demonstrated through a new integration trial.

Fluence will supply the latest large-scale battery energy storage system set to be deployed in South Australia, which has secured non-subsidised debt financing.

While headlines about energy storage in Australia have been dominated by news of batteries in large-scale utility projects and the residential sector, the country’s government and renewable energy agency have identified numerous possibilities for developing pumped hydro storage assets.