The new sweet spot for battery storage is now seven hours in Australia’s biggest isolated grid, but it may grow to 8.5 hours as the market operator manages the exit of coal in a state with no obvious opportunity for pumped hydro.
The Australian Energy Market Operator has recently increased the storage duration sought to manage the swings and roundabouts of wind and solar, as it also boosts the payments made to battery storage and other firm output in the state’s capacity market.
But the storage duration may need to rise even further to 8.5 hours by the middle of the next decade, a figure that some in the industry say is extremely conservative.
The details came via the latest Western Australian Energy Network (WEM) Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO), which hikes the value of capacity credits for batteries by 35 per cent.
Western Australia’s electricity system is unique in the country as it focuses on a type of capacity market rather than just wholesale pricing settings, meaning AEMO pays credits for every megawatt (MW) of firm capacity to guarantee generator and battery availability at all times of the day.
