Doosan Heavy, Gridtech teaming to build 200-MWh Energy Storage site in Australia Capital Territory

Jan. 4, 2022
Australia is forecasted to grow its battery storage capacity to 40 GWh by 2030. The Capital ESS project, once completed and operational, will be capable of supplying electricity to approximately 25,000 households every day

South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction will work with one of its subsidiaries to build out a 100-MW/200-MWh energy storage system in Australia.

Doosan Heavy and Doosan GridTech won an award worth 110 billion KRW ($91.8M U.S.) and a notice to proceed on the Capital ESS project in December. French renewable energy developer Neoen awarded the bid to the Doosan companies.

Australia is forecasted to grow its battery storage capacity to 40 GWh by 2030. The Capitall ESS project should be in service by March 2023 in the Jerrabomberra district of Australia’s Capital Territory, including Canberra.

Neoen originally committed to building a 50-MW large-scale battery array in the nation’s capital as part of its winning bid in ACT Government’s 2020 renewable energy auction, in which it was awarded a 14-year contract to supply 100 MW of wind energy from Stage 1 of Goyder Renewables Zone.

Construction officially began last month.

Once engineering, procurement and construction are complete, Doosan will provide operation and maintenance services for another 20 years. The Capital battery array will be capable of supplying electricity to approximately 25,000 households every day, according to the companies.

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The Doosan GridTech Intelligent Controller (DG-IC), the company’s control software, will be applied to the ESS, enabling electricity from off-peak times to be stored in the battery, so that it can be used later on as needed during peak hours.

“This project being won on the heels of last year’s Queensland project, which was the largest ESS contract in the region to date,” said Inwon Park, CEO of Doosan Heavy’s Plant EPC Business Group. He added, “By leveraging Doosan’s EPC capabilities and creating synergy, we plan to continuously pursue business expansion in the rapidly growing Australian ESS market.”

According to BloombergNEF (BNEF), a leading strategic research provider for the energy industry, the Australian ESS market (in terms of cumulative installed capacity) is forecast to rise from 1.9 Gwh in 2020 to 40 Gwh by 2030, which would be equivalent to a 20-fold increase over a period of 10 years.

Doosan Heavy is one of the world’s largest energy equipment and infrastructure firms. In addition to contracting construction of utility-scale conventional and renewable energy projects, the South Korean firm is putting its own natural gas-fired turbine on the market and also is researching carbon-free hydrogen in the energy mix.

About the Author

Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.