Tesla deploys another big 50 MWh Powerpack project in Australia

Riding on the success of its first giant battery project in South Australia, Tesla is getting a lot of demand for more energy storage projects in the country. The company has now deployed another big 50 MWh Powerpack project in Australia.

Tesla’s 100MW/129MWh Powerpack project in South Australia came online last December.

It proved to be so efficient that it reportedly should have made around $1 million in just a few days in January. However, Tesla complained that they are not being paid correctly because the system doesn’t account for how fast the Powerpacks start discharging their power into the grid.

The system is basically a victim of its own efficiency, which the Australian Energy Market Operator confirmed is much more rapid, accurate and valuable than a conventional steam turbine in a report published earlier this year.

Another report that came out last month even showed that the giant battery system reduced the cost of the grid service that it performs by 90% and it has already taken a majority share of the market.

All that success has led to several other projects contracting Tesla to install more Powerpacks all around Australia, including one at the Gannawarra Solar Farm now supporting the grid in Victoria, Australia.

Tesla announced this week that the project is now connected to the grid and released a cool time-lapse of the construction:

50 MWh of Powerpack storage linked with the Gannawarra Solar Farm now supporting the grid in Victoria, Australia pic.twitter.com/hKirS3ue7U

— Tesla (@Tesla) November 15, 2018

We reported on the project back in June when Tesla first started to deliver Powerpacks at the site.

The 25MW/50MWh project, which is owned by Edify Energy and Wirsol and operated by EnergyAustralia, will perform similar services to the 100MW/129MWh Powerpack project in South Australia, which is connected to a wind farm.

It will store excess energy from the 60 MW solar farm and discharge it to the grid when it needs it the most – replacing costly and polluting peaker plants.

Electrek’s Take

I expect that there will soon be too many of these projects to report on all of them, but it’s fun to highlight them in the meantime.

On a little speculative note, are we seeing the first Tesla Megapack?

We know that Tesla has been working on a new ‘Megapack’ energy system at Gigafactory 1 that is supposed to be bigger than the Powerpack.

Some speculated that it could be a container size system, but maybe this container simply houses other equipment.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.