Tesla wins another Powerpack project in New Zealand

Tesla’s energy storage products are doing well in Oceania. After several major projects underway in Australia, Tesla now wins another contract for a Powerpack project in New Zealand.

Mercury, a New Zealand-based energy company, made the announcement last week.

Fraser Whineray, Mercury’s Chief Executive, commented:

“We’ve chosen to work with Tesla for this ambitious technology development. Tesla has a proven track record in ground-breaking projects around the world,”

The company says that it is investing over $2 million to build this 1MW/ 2MWh energy storage project, which they claim will be New Zealand’s first national grid-connected battery.

Whineray added:

“Mercury’s mission is energy freedom for New Zealand and New Zealanders, such as offering new choices in the ways that sustainable energy services are provided. Technologies like battery storage have the potential to complement our country’s energy system as it supports moves towards greater sustainability across the building, transport and agriculture sectors.”

Albeit much smaller in size and capacity, Mercury compared the system to Tesla’s 100MW/ 129MWh Powerpack project in South Australia. Like the bigger system, it will help balance the grid and they will be trading energy stored in the battery in both the wholesale electricity and reserve markets.

The company expects to have the Tesla Powerpack 2 battery packs in a few months in order for the project to be online by August. They also plan to start selling Tesla’s Powerwall 2 this year.

This new project has been announced right after Tesla was chosen to build another big battery in Australia after the first one is starting to prove to be very impressive in the first few months of operation. The company is also working with Neoen in Australia for a potentially even larger battery projects.

Electrek’s Take

It definitely feels like there’s a snowball effect going on for Tesla Energy around the world, but especially in Australia. Many grid operators are seeing the benefits of the power capacity of the South Australian battery system and they are now looking at ways to replicate it at scale.

And now with other bigger players emerging, like AES and Siemens’ new startup, the energy storage industry is primed for an exciting year in 2018.