Two South Australia-based companies have joined forces to help deliver what the world-leading renewable energy powered state needs much more of: Smart and nimble battery systems with longer storage duration than two hours offered by most of its current fleet of big batteries.
In this case, the new big battery is the relatively small 5 megawatt (MW), 20 megawatt-hour Strathalbyn battery energy storage system (BESS), which was energised and began trading on the National Electricity Market (NEM) on Monday, marking the first operational battery for new developer Lunio Energy.
Lunio Energy, an offshoot of Australian tech-infrastructure outfit Lunio Group, is setting off to develop, own and operate grid-scale battery storage, starting with the Strathalbyn BESS and “further storage projects underway across South Australia.”
“Storage like ours plays a supporting role, filling the gap so that renewable energy is dependable around the clock and the grid holds stable as more wind and solar come on,” says Lunio Energy CEO and founder Seth Thuraisingham.
“It is one important piece of a much bigger effort still ahead, and Strathalbyn is our first step,” Thuraisingham says. “This is the moment Lunio goes from developing projects to running them.”
