- Published:
- Tuesday 3 December 2024
Melbourne’s south east will be powered by one of Victoria’s biggest batteries – boosting the state’s energy reliability, supporting Victoria’s transition to renewable energy and pumping cheap electricity into local homes and businesses.
Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosio today announced completion of construction on the Eku Energy and Shell Energy’s Rangebank battery – a 200 megawatt (MW), 400 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery.
The battery is located next to the Cranbourne terminal station and will be one of the largest in the state – with the storage capacity to power the equivalent of 80,000 Victorian homes for an hour during peak periods.
By soaking up and storing renewable energy to be discharged at times of peak demand, the Rangebank battery will help to lower energy bills for households and businesses and provide essential grid system services to support the delivery of safe, secure and reliable electricity for our homes, businesses, hospitals and schools.
Battery storage is critical to our energy future, for every megawatt of battery storage built, 3 megawatt of new renewable energy generation can be unlocked – that’s why the Allan Labor Government legislated renewable energy storage targets of at least 2.6 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 and 6.3 GW by 2035.
Victoria is the home of big batteries with 11 large scale energy storage systems with a total output capacity of 540 MW in operation – that’s more than any other state.
The Rangebank battery is one of a further 12 utility scale battery projects under construction or in commissioning in Victoria – this will add another 1.4 gigawatts of additional output capacity and 3.2 gigawatt hours of storage.
Building renewable energy storage capacity is key to an affordable and reliable energy supply as Victoria transitions to 95 per cent renewable energy generation by 2035.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosio
“The Rangebank battery will have the storage capacity to power the equivalent of 80,000 Victorian homes for an hour during peak periods.”
“Our nation-leading renewable energy storage targets provide certainty and underpin confidence as we deliver the infrastructure our state needs to continue to drive us forward.”
Quote Attributable to Member for Cranbourne Pauline Richards
“The firm capacity delivered by our energy storage targets will provide reliable, affordable and zero emissions energy to support our communities and families.”