The Lyon Group of Australia on Tuesday launched a tender looking for buyers of the market services provided by its portfolio battery storage projects, or up to 640 MWh of storage capacity.
The Battery Storage Market Services Tender covers three solar-plus-storage projects, including a new AUD-660-million (USD 499m/EUR 446m) facility at Nowingi in northwestern Victoria that will feature 250 MW of solar generation and an 80-MW/160-MWh battery. The exercise also involves two previously announced projects -- Cape York in Queensland, which will have 55 MW of solar and 20 MW/80 MWh of storage, and Riverland in South Australia with 330 MW of solar and 100 MW/400 MWh of storage.
The company said that the outcome of the tender, which is thought to be the first of its kind in the world, will inform the final engineering design of the projects' battery storage systems.
"Lyon is able to offer multiple services from the same battery system, and flexibility in contract size to accommodate various users," said Lyon Group Partner David Green.
The solar-plus-storage projects are 100% equity financed. Nowingi and Riverland are planned to start construction in September, while Cape York is expected to break ground in November.
"Projects like these are the heart of Australia's energy transition, allowing for substantially higher levels of variable, low emissions generation, while strengthening the resilience of the system," Green added. According to the company large-scale battery storage is a cost-effective alternative to network infrastructure upgrades and new gas generation.
Lyon said the tender could be of interest to sector participants such as electricity retailers and generators and large electricity consumers. Large-scale battery storage systems can offer various services including energy price arbitrage, load shifting, renewable energy ramp control, frequency control and ancillary services, and more.
Lyon says its project pipeline in Australia now includes more than 1,700 MW of large-scale solar and 1,000 MW of large-scale battery storage.
(AUD 1 = USD 0.756/EUR 0.676)
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