16 April 2021
The ACT government has formally opened a market sounding to establish a ‘Big Canberra Battery’, as part of a plan to massively increase the national capital’s storage capacity.
The ACT government is proposing to establish a network of distributed batteries, to form an ‘ecosystem’ that allows them to be coordinated and to operate as they were one big battery. It aims to have new capacity of 250MW, on top of the 120MW and two hours of storage it has already contracted through its wind auction process.
“Battery storage technology varies in size, location and core use,” ACT chief minister Andrew Barr said in a statement. “The market sounding process will allow industry and key stakeholder input on the range of possible services and infrastructure ahead of the procurement phase of the project.