Mallacoota will be among the first towns in Australia to have a grid-connected energy storage system included in its local network, which is expected to reduce outages.
Eastern Victorian electricity distributor AusNet Services announced plans to install a large-scale battery near the town in 2019.
The ‘Mallacoota Area Grid Storage’ (MAGS) is an innovative $2.5 million project that will greatly improve power reliability in Mallacoota.
The project involves the establishment of a power storage facility – a large-scale battery, generator, and associated equipment – connected to the AusNet Services electricity grid in Mallacoota.
The heart of MAGS is a lithium ion battery array with a total storage capacity of 1MWh. This could power 1000 average homes for approximately two hours. The MAGS battery will be charged from the grid, and will then feed power back into the grid during local outages, to lessen the impact of these outages on the Mallacoota community.
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MAGS is expected to reduce the number of local outage events by around 90 per cent. This includes both planned and unplanned outages (faults).
The facility will be located at the East Gippsland Water treatment plant on Genoa-Mallacoota Rd, just outside the Mallacoota township.
AusNet Services Executive General Manager Regulated Energy Services Alistair Parker said “Mallacoota was chosen because of its location at the end of a long radial high voltage line from Bairnsdale.
“As such, it has been historically susceptible to power outages caused by storms, vegetation, and animals, and has also suffered the impact of restoration delays as crews travel long distances to undertake repairs in the area,” he said.
“We anticipate that MAGS will be operational around early September 2019. We expect to transport the battery down from Melbourne in March, and we are aiming to commission the new facility well before the next summer season.”
A Public Information Session will be held at the Mallacoota Mud Brick Pavilion at 7pm today (Wednesday November 21, 2018) to explain the project to Mallacoota residents and answer questions.
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