The state government is refusing to disclose why a major battery storage project designed to provide power security to western Victoria has fallen months behind schedule and is now unlikely to be operational this summer.
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In February the state government announced $25 million to develop two 20 megawatt batteries in western Victoria, which The Courier understands are destined for Warrenheip.
The batteries which are designed to provide up to four hours of power for a city the size of Ballarat had been touted as one of the government’s signature efforts to combat potential blackouts caused by summer heatwaves in the wake of the closure of the Hazelwood Power Station.
AEMO has advised that there is a sufficient amount of energy available within the grid.
- Lily D'Ambrosio - Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister
The government was supposed to announce the successful bidder in August with the goal of completing construction by January 2018, however despite about 100 expressions of interest being lodged the contract is still yet to be awarded.
In a statement Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said “(the Australian Energy Market Operator) has advised that there is a sufficient amount of energy available within the grid, and are putting contingency measures in place to ensure that remains the case over summer”.
However the government declined to answer questions around when construction on the batteries was expected to begin or whether they would be operational this summer.
The power storage concern comes after the state government announced in November it would be using diesel generators based in the Latrobe Valley to provide backup energy production in times of peak demand.
Ballarat and other large regional centres were close to experiencing outages earlier this year, with Fairfax Media reporting Victoria was told to prepare for blackouts on February 10, even as the state was busy exporting surplus power to NSW.
Minister D'Ambrosio said the AEMO told her that afternoon, "they were going to risk interrupting electricity supply in western Victoria (Bendigo and Ballarat) to make sure NSW could keep the lights on".
Among a list of contingency measures in place is promoting demand-side participation, which will encourage domestic power users to minimise their use in order to save on their power bills.
In a statement an AEMO spokesperson said despite the batteries not yet being operational “we are quietly optimistic that we have put measures in place to mitigate most known risks”.