Central Irrigation Trust in South Australia's Riverland to host Enel X storage battery system with a national hookup
The Central Irrigation Trust is set to benefit from the Enel X batteries, hosted at their sites in South Australia's Riverland.
Image courtesy Enel X
Global energy company Enel X announced in 2021 a the commercial and industrial battery energy storage system – the largest of its kind in Australia – to be built at sites owned by the Central Irrigation Trust at Waikerie, Loveday, Berri and Chaffey in the South Australian Riverland.
Expected to operate from 2022, the batteries would commercially benefit both Enel X and Central Irrigation Trust but are also set to boost Riverland energy security and form part of South Australia's grid as more renewable energy sources came online.
Enel X's Asia Pacific director Jeff Renaud said: "There's already a concentration of solar power in the Riverland region, which is starting to cause midday power demand issues. So a concentration of batteries in the region can naturally balance out those issues, which can avoid the need, for instance, for there to be future constraints on the amount of solar power that can be generated in the middle of the day."
The Riverland battery energy storage system would hook up with Enel X's virtual power plant, a national system recognising the demand for energy around Australia. The battery will act according to what was happening at the national market level and with the Central Irrigation Trust local consumption, using the natural alignment between those two things.
The Central Irrigation Trust would gain support for its irrigation and other local customers for their energy demands but Enel X said the project would be able to supply additional energy to the Riverland.
Greg McCaron, chief executive of the Central Irrigation Trust, said it would be the custodian for the battery: "We are the conduits to help Enel X hook into the network, and that's an important part of them. They need to have customers like us to gain access to the network. And, by providing us some of the benefits, there's a reason for us to allow them to do that, so we get that demand control, and to have demand control that's worthwhile. You need to be a larger power user, and that's where we come into it."
