Australian transmission network operator Transgrid has selected "advanced compressed air energy storage technology" developed by Hydrostor as the preferred option for creating a backup energy supply for deployment in Broken Hill, NSW.
Transgrid has previously evaluated various energy storage project proposals planned for the city of Broken Hill, and the winning proposal will provide the highest net benefit locally and improve the ability to integrate renewable energy into its grid.
A rendering of Hydrostor's Silver City compressed air project, which the company says will create a renewable microgrid for the Australian city of Broken Hill
Canadian energy storage developer Hydrostor, which owns its proprietary Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (A-CAES) technology, said today that Transgrid has included its proposed 200MW/1,500MWh SilverCity energy storage centre in a new project evaluation report. The project is identified as the most suitable energy storage project.
Hydrostor's energy storage projects are the preferred long-term energy storage solution for high-voltage transmission network operators and are in the long-term interest of electricity customers. The Long Term Energy Storage System (LDES) will be able to export stored electricity to the grid to participate in Australia's National Electricity Market (NEM) and help free up more capacity in the region's grid to accommodate more renewable electricity.
The city of Broken Hill is a historic mining area in western New South Wales. More recently, it has been home to a number of utility-scale solar and wind facilities, and the city is currently deploying a 50MW battery storage system.
Transgrid didn't want to replace these diesel generators with more fossil fuels, so it worked hard to find clean energy. Hydrostor's Silver City energy storage project has been awarded a transmission reliability contract from the power system operator, and the storage developer hopes to stack this revenue stream with funding from Australia's National Electricity Market (NEM), in partnership with local government and Energy traders reach a deal.
While Hydrostor has only one commercial operation so far, a 2.2MW compressed air energy storage project in Ontario, Canada, lasting about five hours, the company is developing in California and Brock Hill, Australia Large-scale long-term energy storage projects, totaling 1.1GW/8.7GWh. The company can provide the technology to customers or, like BrokenHill and its two energy storage projects in California, find development opportunities for projects and enter the development process itself.
The Hydrostor technology is known as the "Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage System" (A-CAES) because it provides some significant improvements to the compressed air energy storage technology that has been operating for several years at two compressed air energy storage projects in the United States and Germany , with a total installed capacity of 400MW.
The main point is that, unlike traditional compressed air technology, advanced compressed air energy storage systems do not require the use of electricity from fossil fuel power plants to preheat the air for expansion. Instead, it uses what Walleghem says is a very simple and reliable thermal management system that stores the heat generated when the air is compressed by heating water, and then uses the hot water in a subsequent air expansion step. Compared with other compressed air solutions, its efficiency is increased by about 25%: its round-trip efficiency has increased from about 40% to about 65%.
The company also claims that, unlike pumped hydro storage (PHES) power generation facilities, advanced compressed air energy storage systems are relatively easy to sit and build, require far less space and water, and geoengineering is largely limited to underground cavernous tunnels.
Hydrostor has secured a $250 million investment commitment announced by Goldman Sachs Asset Management in January, as well as a $25 million investment from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP).
