Meridian to build big battery for New Zealand, add solar later

Meridian Energy Ltd (NZE:MEL) intends to build a battery energy storage system (BESS) of at least 100 MW north of New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, to boost grid stability and allow more power to come from South Island generators.

The New Zealand power utility plans to switch on the Marsden Point BESS by mid-2023, a statement showed on Wednesday. A utility-scale solar farm will be constructed once the BESS is operational to produce enough to cover the electricity needs of 15,000 households.

Meridian projects that by 2030, four or five utility-scale batteries will need to be installed at strategic locations across the country.

"The BESS is the first of many we intend to build which will have the capacity to supply instantaneous power to the grid, and enable more electricity to flow from renewable generators in the South Island over the Cook Strait cable," Meridian's head of renewable development, Rebecca Knott, said.

The company has acquired 105 hectares of land for the solar-plus-storage project, called Ruakaka Energy Park, next to the country's only oil refinery, Marsden Point. Owner Refining NZ (NZE:NZR) is shutting down and converting the refinery into a fuel import terminal in the first half of 2022.

Meridian is in talks with local Maori and other community stakeholders, and is also conducting ecological and geotechnical site assessments as part of the due diligence process for the project.

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