LDES (Long-duration energy storage) will play a critical role in supporting Western Australia’s journey to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The state’s regional energy provider, Horizon Power, is embracing the latest technology, with innovative LDES trials to support the state’s acceleration to a cleaner, greener future.
In March 2024, the Albanese and Cook Governments announced a partnership to fund trials of long-duration batteries to help Australians living in off-grid communities access the benefits of cheaper, cleaner solar energy.
With $2.85 million each from the Western Australian Government and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), regional energy provider Horizon Power is responsible for piloting two new battery technologies in remote communities that are powered by regional microgrids.
The trials will test alternative battery chemistries that provide LDES to help Horizon Power understand their suitability for extreme climates.
In Carnarvon, located in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, BASF’s 250kW/1.45MWh sodium-sulphur battery will be the first of its kind in Australia to connect to a regulated network and a distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) platform. Meanwhile, Redflow’s 100kW/400kWh zinc-bromine flow battery will be put to the test in temperatures well over 40oC, further north in the Pilbara community of Nullagine. Both batteries are expected to be deployed in early 2025.
These groundbreaking trials support both the Federal and Western Australian governments’ carbon emissions reduction targets, while making renewables more accessible for regional and remote customers. They will also provide the Horizon Power’s project team with key learnings around how the technologies can be effectively integrated into its network and test their temperature resilience in regions with extreme environmental conditions.
Empowering communities large and small
As Western Australia’s only vertically integrated electricity utility, Horizon Power operates across the full energy supply chain: generation, transmission, distribution, and retail services.
Its service area covers about a third of the country, making it the largest geographical catchment of any Australian energy provider, managing the NWIS (North West Interconnected System) in the Pilbara; the connected network that covers three interconnected systems in Kununurra, Wyndham and Lake Argyle; and 34 microgrids tailored to meet the unique needs of some of the most isolated and remote communities in the world.
In July 2023, Horizon Power also assumed responsibility for the delivery of power to 117 remote Aboriginal communities, formerly under the responsibility of the Department of Communities. The Remote Communities program aims to standardise power services for these communities, enabling all Horizon Power customers to have access to the same standard of power as others living in similar sized communities.
Horizon Power Chief Executive Officer, Stephanie Unwin, said the energy provider had been an early adopter of advanced energy storage, and over the past 15 years has been exploring how energy storage can best be used to promote increased uptake of renewable energy across regional Western Australia.
“Our latest trials will continue our exploration of LDES technologies that are suitable for withstanding the extreme temperatures in our regions, providing valuable insights for our team, which will support future battery deployment in our regions,” Ms Unwin said.
“These trials demonstrate our commitment and significant investment toward a cleaner and more sustainable energy future.”
The latest announcement follows Horizon Power’s purchase in August 2023 of a Vanadium Redox Flow Battery for a long-duration energy storage pilot in Kununurra, in Western Australia’s Kimberley region.
The 78kW/220kWh battery, from Invinity, represents a milestone in Horizon Power’s quest to test, understand and
harness the capabilities of providing long periods of 100 per cent renewable energy in Western Australia.
Vanadium batteries boast exceptional characteristics, including temperature resilience in harsh environments, long-duration capacity and stable energy storage.
The vanadium battery is undergoing factory acceptance testing in Perth, before it will be transported to Kununurra later this year, for the start of the pilot program.
Horizon Power is eager to demonstrate the potential of long-duration, 100 per cent renewable energy and envisions a future where such solutions power its portfolio of microgrids across its vast service area.
Horizon Power Future Technology & Innovation Manager, David Edwards, said that through decarbonisation planning and extensive modelling it became evident that the regional energy provider would need batteries larger than anything they had previously installed.
“It also became clear, through our work with the regional deployment of lithium-ion batteries across our service area, that lithium technology will only get us part of the way in decarbonising microgrids, particularly due to the amount of energy that’s required to keep the batteries cool, which can be challenging in very small systems,” Mr Edwards said.
What followed was a deep dive and techno-economic assessment of the battery technologies available, using 28 dimensions of assessment – to assess their suitability for regional microgrids and small indigenous communities.
“There are a lot of companies out there offering LDES solutions with differing technology and commercial readiness levels,” Mr Edwards said.
“When we were assessing different battery types it was essential for us to partner with battery manufacturers with a local team.
“They had to have someone in Western Australia who could support the battery and experience connecting devices to a regulated network in Australia and working in regional areas.”
“We put different technologies through our assessment criteria – looking at everything from whether it was modular to how much had been installed overseas and if it was weather or cyclone rated. We also needed the product to display a reliable level of technological and commercial readiness.”
As a result, Horizon Power’s focus turned to flow batteries and sodium-sulphur batteries.
“We understood that the sodium-sulphur batteries could scale up cost effectively to large storage systems suited to our decarbonisation aspirations in our seven gas-fired towns,” Mr Edwards said.
“Meanwhile, flow batteries look like a good fit for most of our mid-sized towns, so we’re testing the Redflow (Australian invention) bromine flow battery, and also the vanadium redox flow battery from VSUN Energy.
“Through all these LDES trials we want to demonstrate our commitment and play a part in lifting the energy storage capability ecosystem here in Australia,” Mr Edwards said.
“The batteries have been chosen because they display resilience at high temperatures, improved depth of discharge, modular scalability and most importantly, (minimal) risk of thermal runaway.
“We’re integrating the Redflow battery with a new control system and will be testing it for its ability to run the town in ‘hydrocarbons-off’ mode. Time will tell whether it’s possible or not. We’ve done this with lithium-ion but not with a flow battery.”
The vanadium battery will be tested in Kununurra, and the sodium-sulphur battery is being deployed to Carnarvon, with room for expansion.
“It made sense to test this one in a gas-fired town because that’s where we see it bringing the most value in the future,” Mr Edwards said.
Mr Edwards said that Horizon Power is proud to be playing a role in the market validation of new and innovative ways to store renewable energy and the network orchestration of energy storage assets via DERMS.
“As Horizon Power is running small, geographically isolated and non-interconnected networks, the utility has to be careful with energy management,” Mr Edwards said.
“The last thing we want to do is unnecessarily curb renewable energy, so it’s incumbent on us to find a solution to cost-effectively store that otherwise curtailed renewable energy. That’s where long duration energy storage comes in. The hope is that we will progress to a point where we deploy this technology across our regions to save precious renewable energy for use at another time of the day.
“As we have more storage at our disposal, we can start to develop additional customer-facing products to help them not only more effectively manage their own energy generation, but also their own energy consumption.”
Featured image: Township of Kununurra in Kimberley Western Australia. Image: Horizon Power
