• About
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Events
Thursday, July 17, 2025
Newsletter
SUBSCRIBE
  • News
    • Contracts awarded
    • Open tenders and opportunities
    • Events
  • Features
  • Water
  • Wastewater
  • Gas
  • Electricity
  • Civil Construction
  • Events
No Results
View All Results
  • News
    • Contracts awarded
    • Open tenders and opportunities
    • Events
  • Features
  • Water
  • Wastewater
  • Gas
  • Electricity
  • Civil Construction
  • Events
No Results
View All Results
Home

Ballarat to receive Australia’s largest battery

by Utility Journalist
August 25, 2015
in Civil Construction, Electricity, Features, News
Reading Time: 2 mins read
A A
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Powercor will be installing Australia’s largest battery in Buninyong (VIC) in early 2016.

The 2 megawatt  battery will be housed in a standard 40 foot shipping container and is capable of providing approximately 3,000 customers with an hour of back-up power during a power outage.

“This investment will highlight the capabilities and value of using a battery storage system on a rural long feeder in Buninyong, south of Ballarat,” said Tim Rourke, Chief Executive Officer at Powercor.

“This will allow us to determine if using the installation of batteries on the network will successfully increase capacity temporarily during peak demand periods.”

Equivalent to 20 per cent of the current powerline’s capacity, the battery will increase the bandwidth of the network on peak demand days.

“Think of it as adding an extra lane to a heavily used highway during peak hour.

“The battery’s additional capacity will help reduce stress on the network on peak demand days, which then increases the life of the existing electrical asset, reduces maintenance costs and ultimately lowers costs for our customers,” said Mr Rourke.

Data shows that customers in Buninyong experience an average of three outages a year with each outage lasting over 100 minutes.

“Our initial analysis has determined that two out of three power outages could have been prevented if we had a battery in place. We anticipate that installing the battery will reduce the total outage time by almost 66 percent to less than 33 minutes a year,” said Mr Rourke.

“As an electricity distributor, we recognise our increasing role in assessing energy trends and enabling new technologies as our customers increasingly embrace newer and more energy efficient technologies such as solar and battery storage.

“We are constantly looking for our ways to allow our electricity networks to operate more flexibly and maintain reliability while ensuring that our customers still receive a low-cost distribution service. This project is one such initiative that demonstrates our commitment to building an evolving network,” says Mr Rourke.

Installing the battery in December 2015 means customers can expect an increase in reliability of their power supply from early 2016, instead of waiting till 2017 and 2019 for scheduled capital upgrades in the area.

The battery is currently being built in South Korea and Powercor expects to commence testing of the battery in December 2015 with the battery fully operational by early 2016.

Related Posts

Image: Rädlinger 

Saving water and emissions

by Katie Livingston
July 16, 2025

Water is a valuable resource, and this is especially true in times of increasing weather extremes, such as floods or...

Image: Programmed

Bringing culture and connection to remote sites

by Katie Livingston
July 16, 2025

Beyond service delivery, Programmed helps build environments that foster connection, and support workforce morale in remote operations.  At 29Metals’ Golden...

Image: agnormark/stock.adobe.com.au  

CSE25: Solutions for our climate reality

by Katie Livingston
July 16, 2025

Climate change is no longer a threat; it’s a baseline consideration in many engineering decisions.   From transport systems and...

Read our magazine

Join our newsletter

View our privacy policy, collection notice and terms and conditions to understand how we use your personal information.
Utility is the title of choice for decision makers at all levels of water and energy utilities, as well as other major players like consulting engineers and first-tier contractors. Utility is integrated across print and online, and explores the biggest news and issues across the utility industry. It is Australia’s only dedicated utility magazine, and covers all areas of the utility sector, including water and sewer, gas, electricity, communications and the NBN.

Subscribe to our newsletter

View our privacy policy, collection notice and terms and conditions to understand how we use your personal information.

About Utility

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Digital magazine
  • Events
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Collection Notice
  • Privacy Policy

Popular Topics

  • News
  • Water
  • Electricity
  • Projects
  • Water and Wastewater Treatment
  • Spotlight
  • Civil Construction
  • Renewable Energy

© 2025 All Rights Reserved. All content published on this site is the property of Prime Creative Media. Unauthorised reproduction is prohibited

No Results
View All Results
NEWSLETTER
SUBSCRIBE
  • News
    • Contracts awarded
    • Open tenders and opportunities
    • Events
  • Features
  • Water
  • Wastewater
  • Gas
  • Electricity
  • Civil Construction
  • Events
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

© 2025 All Rights Reserved. All content published on this site is the property of Prime Creative Media. Unauthorised reproduction is prohibited