NSW's Waratah Super Battery brings live first 350 MW

The 850-MW/1,680-MWh Waratah Super Battery Project in New South Wales (NSW) has switched on the first 350-MW/700-MWh of its capacity, which is now acting as a "shock absorber" for the NSW grid in the event of outages caused by events like lightning or bushfires.

Akaysha Energy Pty Ltd, the Aussie battery energy developer backed by BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK), won a tender to develop, build and operate the project in 2022. Construction started in 2023.

Full operation is expected later this year, NSW government's EnergyCo and Akaysha said on Tuesday as they announced the partial start-up.

The Waratah Super Battery is said to be the world’s most powerful battery in terms of power and energy storage capacity at the moment. Located at the site of the former Munmorah coal-fired power station, the battery is designed as a system integrity protection scheme (SIPS) to boost the transmission capacity of the existing network. It uses Powin battery hardware and software.

EnergyCo Chief Executive Hannah McCaughey said the battery will help provide clean, reliable and affordable energy to people in the state and the National Electricity Market. “This is the first of our projects to go into operation, and there are many more to come. We look forward to more milestones in our renewable energy zones this year,” McCaughey added.

Cover photo:  Waratah Super Battery site