FORUM –
Mr Hemmings of Woy Woy (Forum, CCN371) should get out of Woy Woy and take a drive up to San Remo-Doyalson to see for himself the actual situation on the old Munmorah power station site.
One of fist things he will notice is the lack of sheep grazing on the site.
In fact, he will struggle to actually see the site from Scenic D.
Even when the old coal power station was there, one could not see it from the road, and the present gas fired station is just barely visible through the trees – mainly because of the shiny stainless-steel structure.
And Mr Hemmings’ 14 hectares for the super-battery is only some 20 per cent of the original footprint of the 65 odd hectares old power station.
I don’t want to debate the cost-benefit of the scheme – except to say that better qualified brains than mine will have done the sums – so who am I to dispute their figures, or Mr Hemmings – unless he is qualified.
Enough to say that South Australian Hornsdale Tesla Big Battery Hornsdale Power Reserve has the capacity to provide an estimated 2,000 megawatt seconds (MWs) of equivalent inertia to South Australia’s grid through Tesla’s Virtual Machine Mode technology.
Known as virtual synchronous machines or grid forming inverters, this technology gives batteries the capacity to help stabilise the grid by providing inertia.
Along with frequency control services, inertia is necessary for operating a stable grid and is especially important after major disturbances.
Until now, inertia services have only been provided by gas or coal-fired generators and their rapid retirement is causing inertia shortfalls or grid instability (PV magazine July 2022).
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said: “Grid scale batteries and other types of energy storage technology will be vital to support our future electricity system powered by renewables.
“This … will demonstrate the role of advanced inverters in grid scale batteries to provide system stability, facilitating a more efficient transition and accelerate the uptake of renewable generation.”
I’m no electrical engineer myself (only an electrician), but it seems that the role of these battery banks is to provide stability to the grid when the gas and coal stations suffer sudden draw-down at peak load or major storm or wind damage.
The sudden disruptions at peak load times cause brown-outs or drop-outs and are extremely damaging for industrial and commercial activity.
It would be good to see a “layman’s” overview of these complex projects so that we don’t have people going off half-cocked.
And I’m willing to stand corrected.
Email, Dec 14
Geoff Robertson, The Entrance