Hazelwood is Australia’s first retired coal-fired power station to host a utility-scale battery

MELBOURNE, Australia, June 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ENGIE and project partners Eku Energy and Fluence have delivered another milestone at the site of the former Hazelwood Power Station in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, with the commissioning of the Hazelwood Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) today. Marking a new era in Australia’s energy transition, Hazelwood is the first retired coal-fired power station to host a battery storage system in Australia and represents a key moment in repurposing former thermal assets for renewable energy technologies.

The Hazelwood BESS was officially opened on 14 June 2023 by The Hon. Lily D’Ambrosio MP, Victorian Minister for Energy & Resources, together with Rik De Buyserie, CEO, ENGIE Australia & New Zealand, Daniel Burrows, Chief Investment Officer and Head of Asia Pacific, Eku Energy, and Achal Sondhi, Vice President for Market Growth, APAC & General Manager for Australia, Fluence.

Jointly funded and developed by ENGIE and Eku Energy, the 150 MW/150 MWh Hazelwood BESS is Australia’s largest privately funded utility-scale battery. Fluence supplies, operates, and maintains the facility for the partnership and it is the first project in Australia to use Fluence’s Gridstack product to provide secure and reliable energy in Victoria and support the energy transition.

The Hon. Lily D’Ambrosio MP, Minister for Energy & Resources, Government of Victoria said, “Victoria is leading the nation in delivering battery and energy storage projects, with our ambitious energy storage targets ensuring that Victoria continues to attract industry investment and collaboration opportunities like this. The Latrobe Valley has been the home of Victoria’s energy generation for decades and new investment in technologies like energy storage will help solidify its role in our renewable energy future.”

Rik De Buyserie, CEO, ENGIE ANZ said, “ENGIE’s delivery of the Hazelwood battery is part of our commitment to building long-term, reliable assets that play a key role in the future of Australia’s energy transition. With its access to transmission and available space at site, Hazelwood is the perfect location for an asset that can grow in depth and duration, increasing the hosting capacity for renewables.”

Daniel Burrows, Chief Investment Officer and Head of Asia Pacific, Eku Energy said, “The Hazelwood battery is an example of how strong partnerships can support the deployment of battery storage systems at strategic grid locations as Australia’s existing generation fleet transitions towards higher penetrations of renewable energy resources. Storage solutions remain key to the pace at which we can transition to renewable energy and today’s event marks another proud milestone in Eku Energy’s global energy storage portfolio, as we celebrate the commissioning of 150 MW of safe, secure and reliable battery capacity to accelerate the energy transition.”

Achal Sondhi, Vice President for Market Growth, APAC & General Manager for Australia at Fluence said, “As the first project in Australia to deploy Fluence Gridstack, an energy storage product which is designed for the most demanding market applications, the Hazelwood battery is a major milestone for us. By partnering with ENGIE and Eku Energy, we are bringing Fluence’s proven advanced technology combined with over 15 years of global energy storage experience to deliver industry-leading reliability, scalability, and safety to Australia. Fluence Mosaic™ bidding software allows the Hazelwood battery to react quickly and efficiently to grid needs and maximise the revenue while allowing integration of more clean energy. Our rapidly growing Fluence team in Australia is committed to the country’s energy transition.”

The Hazelwood battery has the capacity to store the equivalent of an hour of energy generated from the rooftop solar systems of 30,000 homes. It will play a critical role in increasing renewable energy capacity in Victoria while delivering essential system services to the grid. The Hazelwood Power Station was built in the 1960s and closed in 2017 after 50 years of service, in line with ENGIE’s global strategy to be Net Zero carbon by 2045.

For further information on the Hazelwood BESS, visit https://engie.com.au/hazelwoodbattery

Note to Editor: A digital press kit with hi-res images, b-roll, speeches and fact sheets can be downloaded from here.

For further information, please contact Positive Good on behalf of ENGIE, Eku Energy and Fluence:

Susin Thoroughgood
Mobile: 0414 591 307
Email: susin@positivegood.com.au

Jaki Rowbottom
Mobile: 0409 238 944
Email: jaki@positivegood.com.au

About ENGIE
ENGIE is a global reference in low-carbon energy and services. With its 96,000 employees, its customers, partners and stakeholders, the Group is committed to accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral world, through reduced energy consumption and more environmentally friendly solutions. Inspired by its purpose (“raison d’être”), ENGIE reconcile economic performance with a positive impact on people and the planet, building on its key businesses (gas, renewable energy, services) to offer competitive solutions to its customers. In Australia, the ENGIE ANZ joint venture with Mitsui & Co Ltd has 1,100MW of low-carbon generation capacity and more than 2,000MW of renewable energy and storage solutions under development. Our retail business, Simply Energy, has more than 730,000 gas and electricity customer accounts. ENGIE’s trading arm, Global Energy Management & Sales (GEMS) provides long-energy supply agreements, energy trading, risk management and asset management services to business customers across the ENGIE ANZ portfolio. ENGIE’s Hazelwood Rehabilitation Project is progressing the delivery of a safe, stable and sustainable site after the closure of the mine and power station in 2017.

About Eku Energy
Initially established by Macquarie’s Green Investment Group, Eku Energy is jointly owned by a Macquarie Asset Management managed fund and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI). Eku Energy’s purpose-built team brings together specialist technical capabilities, with experience across origination, development, system design, power markets and software optimisation. By combining technical, digital and financial innovation with a local partnership approach and data driven understanding of markets, we develop sophisticated revenue contracting strategies that maximise the benefits of energy storage systems in any given location.

Eku Energy’s 1GWh Australian battery portfolio in delivery includes the:

• 150MW / 150MWh Hazelwood BESS in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria
• 200MW / 400MWh Rangebank BESS in Cranbourne, Victoria
• 250MW / 500MWh Big Canberra Battery in Williamsdale, Australian Capital Territory
  

For more information, visit Eku Energy.

About Fluence
Fluence Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: FLNC) is a global market leader in energy storage products and services, and cloud-based software for renewables and storage. With a presence in over 40 markets globally, Fluence provides an ecosystem of offerings to drive the clean energy transition, including modular, scalable energy storage products, comprehensive service offerings, and the Fluence IQ Platform, which delivers AI-enabled digital applications for managing and optimizing renewables and storage from any provider. Fluence is transforming the way we power our world by helping customers create more resilient and sustainable electric grids.

For more information, visit our website, or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter. To stay up to date on the latest industry insights, sign up for Fluence's Full Potential Blog.

Forward-Looking Statements

The statements described herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the expected operational performance of Hazelwood BESS as well as the anticipated performance of Fluence Mosaic and the optimisation for bidding on the NEM through its use. Such statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. When used in this press release, words such as “may,” “possible,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “intends,” “targets,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions and variations thereof and similar words and expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments, as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events, and their potential effects on our business. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance, and there can be no assurance that future developments affecting our business will be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, which include, but are not limited to, changes in Victoria and/or Australia’s regulatory regime and energy goals relating to renewables and energy storage, unforeseen circumstances outside of Fluence’s control which may cause the Fluence Mosaic application to terminate or not perform as anticipated and such factors set forth under Part I, Item 1A. “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2022, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on December 14, 2022 and in other filings we make with the SEC from time to time. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to predict all such risk factors, nor can we assess the effect of all such risk factors on our business or the extent to which any factor or combination of factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of the assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements made in this press release. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur, or which we become aware of, after the date hereof, except as otherwise may be required by law.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a4fad6a7-ffab-45ad-8279-1e6dbb893d55