The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has announced a AUD100 million competitive funding round for grid scale batteries. While battery technology agnostic, the projects must be equipped with advanced inverter technology.

Australia is looking to accelerate demonstration of advanced inverter capabilities on battery projects at scale as it continues to search for new ways to provide stability to the electricity system and enable the grid to operate with higher shares of intermittent renewables.

Building on its previous investments in both grid scale batteries and system security, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will now allocate AU$100 million ($73 million) to further investigate grid-forming inverters that can enable utility-scale batteries to provide system stability services traditionally provided by synchronous generation, such as coal or gas.

Named the Large-Scale Battery Storage Funding Round, the new ARENA program will provide funding to grid-scale batteries of 70MW or larger operating operating in the National Electricity Market or Western Australia’s Wholesale Electricity Market. In addition to supporting new build projects, funding will also be available to existing grid scale batteries seeking to retrofit advanced inverter capability or expand an existing or committed battery by constructing a new adjacent project, and incorporating advanced inverter functionality across both the existing and new assets.

It is expected that the funding round will support at least three projects, with a maximum grant available of AUD35 million per project. Applications will be open to all battery energy storage technologies, provided that they are equipped with advanced inverters, ARENA stated.

Demonstration at scale

The funding round aims to incentivize and derisk private sector investment and overcome barriers to the deployment of advanced inverter technology. By funding advanced inverter technology at scale, ARENA hopes to provide valuable insights into the operations and emerging capabilities of advanced inverters.

“Grid scale batteries and other types of energy storage technology will be vital to support our future electricity system powered by renewables,” ARENA CEO Darren Miller said. “This funding round 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.”

Unlike traditional, grid-following inverters which sync their output to the grid’s voltage waveforms, advanced or grid-forming inverters can set their own frequencies without the inertia generated by large spinning pieces of hardware. This makes them capable of providing the grid with virtual inertia replacing the mechanical inertia traditionally provided by synchronous generators while reducing the current curtailment of solar PV and wind generation.

ARENA's funding initiative follows the release of the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Application of Advanced Grid-scale Inverters in the NEM report, which highlights the great potential of this technology. The report identifies four key areas of application for advanced inverters – including connecting inverter-based resources in weak grids, supporting system security, island operation, and system restart.

From: PV Magazine