AGL’s proposed grid-scale battery at Liddell station gets gov't approval

The battery site has a 500MW, 2GWh capacity.

Energy firm AGL has received the approval from the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment on its proposal to build a 500-megawatt, two gigawatt-hour grid-scale battery on the site of one of its coal plants.

In a statement, AGL said the grid-scale battery will be a part of the company’s Hunter Energy Hub planned for the site of the Liddell power station, following its retirement in 2023.

The first unit of the Liddell will close next month and the following unit will close in April 2023.

AGL Chief Operation Officer Markus Brokhof said the transition of the thermal coal plant into an integrated, low-carbon industrial energy hub would be the company’s first rehabilitation of a coal site.

“This planning approval marks a significant milestone for the transition of the Liddell site and we look forward to working with partners to progress other developments on and around the site, including a wind farm, a solar storage system, pumped hydro, a waste-to-energy plant and our recently announced green hydrogen pilot with Fortescue Future Industries (FFI),” Brokhof said.

“All of these developments will benefit from the excellent resources and infrastructure these sites feature and create the jobs of the future across many industries, not just energy,” he added.

AGL said that Liddel battery is part of the company’s planned roll-out of 850MW grid-scale batteries, with construction ongoing at Torrens Island, and planning underway at Broken Hill and Loy Yang.

It added that Liddell battery will be an asset of Accel Energy, following the proposed demerger this year.