News

Australia's largest electricity distribution company, Ausgrid, takes advantage of its infrastructure asset base to continue plans for new large-scale battery projects in Sydney, the Central Coast and the Hunter region.

Ausgrid this week applied for development consent to construct, operate and maintain an up to 200 MW / 800 MWh Battery Energy Storage System at Kurri Kurri, approximately 30km north-west of Newcastle in NSW.

The Kurri Kurri BESS will be installed on a 1.3-hectare site owned by Ausgrid adjacent to the Kurri Kurri Zone Sub-station, located within the Cessnock Council LGA and zoned as ‘Heavy Industrial’.

The BESS will consist of containerised battery units and associated infrastructure, including inverters and medium voltage transformers, connected to the Kurri Kurri Zone Sub-station via 33kV underground cables.

A scoping report submitted to the NSW planning authority said, “the project forms part of Ausgrid’s broader strategy to enhance grid resilience and support the transition to renewable energy”.

This strategy has led to a flurry of BESS development approval applications, with Kurri Kurri being one of Ausgrid’s largest proposed projects.

The most mature of these is the 200 MW / 400 MWh Steel River East BESS in Mayfield West, a suburb of Newcastle on the Central Coast, which received planning and environmental approvals last month.