The Victoria government has fast-tracked a 400MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) being developed by Green Power Generation (GPG) Australia.
The 200MW/400MWh 2-hour duration Tarrone BESS will cost around AU$190 million (US$124 million) and will be located approximately 286km west of the state capital Melbourne.
According to planning documents, the BESS will be developed on an 83-hectare site. The BESS itself will occupy around six hectares of this project site and connect to the National Electricity Market (NEM) via the Tarrone Terminal Station, located immediately west of the site.
The state government emphasised that the Tarrone BESS will store cheap renewable energy during the day and release it back into the electricity grid during peak demand helping deliver “cheaper energy bills and reliable electricity to Victorian homes and businesses.”
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Fast-tracking through the Development Facilitation Program
The Tarrone BESS is the latest project to benefit from Victoria’s Development Facilitation Program (DFP).
This initiative, expanded last year to include renewable energy projects, aims to accelerate the development of critical infrastructure.
By bypassing the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which previously delayed around 20% of projects by up to two years, the DFP ensures faster approvals for projects like the Tarrone BESS.
Other notable BESS sites to have been included in this programme include Mint Renewables’ 200MW/400MWh Dederang BESS in northeast Victoria and ACEnergy’s 350MW/770MWh Little River BESS.
In total, the programme has fast-tracked 16 renewable energy and storage projects, representing a combined investment of AU$4.4 billion.
The decision to fast-track the Tarrone BESS project follows extensive consultation with residents, stakeholders, the council, the Country Fire Authority, Ausnet, Worksafe, and Moyne Shire Council.
GPG Australia’s broader BESS portfolio
Readers of Energy-Storage.news will likely remember GPG Australia as the company behind what it claimed was Western Australia’s first grid-connected large-scale solar-plus-storage hybrid project earlier this year.
The 128MW Cunderdin hybrid solar PV and BESS features a PV power plant with a co-located 55MW/220MWh 4-hour duration BESS. It is connected to the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) electricity grid.
Additionally, GPG secured a AU$2.3 billion financing facility at the end of 2024. The financing was from 11 international banks and centred around GPG’s Australian portfolio, which consisted of eight operating assets, including six wind farms, a BESS project, and the Cunderdin hybrid project.
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