KURRI KURRI's controversial Hunter Economic Zone (HEZ) will be the site of a power-station sized battery if a Sydney-based investment fund gets its plans off the ground.
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CEP.Energy, a privately owned "specialist renewable energy fund" chaired by former NSW Labor premier Morris Iemma, announced yesterday that it had signed a 30-year lease agreement with HEZ to build a grid-scale battery on the site, to be built in stages but ultimately capable of delivering 1200 megawatts - or 1.2 gigawatts - of power to the grid.
Federal Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor yesterday welcomed the proposal, but said it needed to reach "financial close", the benchmark the Morrison government has set in deciding whether its Snowy Hydro will build a gas-fired power station at the nearby Kurri smelter site.
BREAKING NEWS: Yesterday's first word on the battery plan
CEP chief executive Peter Wright said the company aimed to become "the largest battery storage asset owner in the Australian energy market".
"To achieve this, we have secured strategic locations with excellent access to existing network connection infrastructure," Mr Wright, an internationally experienced infrastructure and funds specialist, said yesterday.
"The HEZ site for our NSW battery is zoned for heavy industrial use, pre-approved for power generation. Its proximity to the 330kva lines from the former Kurri smelter make it one the best sites in Australia for reliable and efficient grid connection."
Mr Wright said a likely first stage was about 400 megawatts and expressions of interest for a battery provider would be issued "soon".
Mr Wright would not put a price on the project but did not dispute widely quoted costings of about $2 million per megawatt, meaning even the first stage could have a potential cost of $800 million, although prices were falling and size bought economies of scale.
He said there was a world shortage of batteries and only a handful of manufacturers, but he was confident the battery farm could be up and running in 2023.
He said finance would not be a problem.
The CEP.Energy plan is the latest in a series of battery announcements, with the financial sector increasingly involved in the shift to a more renewably-powered energy grid.
Mr Iemma said the Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap published in November by the NSW government gave the market "the confidence to invest in renewable generation".
Mr Wright said CEP had been formed expressly to invest in renewable technologies and had recruited a team of industry executives including Mark Stedwell, formerly with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
Mr Wright said he and fellow CEP director Dr Henry Pinskier were the major shareholders, while Melbourne property firm Pelligra Group had a "significant minority" stake.
He said the Kurri battery - and three more at interstate sites owned by the Pelligra Grup - was part of a broader strategy that included large-scale industrial rooftop solar to help bring down energy costs for Australian businesses.
Mr Wright said CEP had looked at building at the Kurri smelter site being developed by Jeff McCloy and John Stevens, but had opted for HEZ.
He said a five-year lease with an option for another 20 hectares had been struck with HEZ's owner, Sydney accountant and businessman Frank Cavasinni.
Mr Cavasinni said he was "delighted to partner with CEP to host Australia's largest grid-scale battery and to install rooftop solar panels on all developments within HEZ".
But the HEZ site has had a long and controversial environmental history, and critics were quick to come out against the plan yesterday, despite the importance of batteries to a "green" power grid.
Former Cessnock councillor James Ryan - one of the key figures in the "fight for Mount Tomalpin", as it was dubbed at the time - said "battery storage is a great initiative to counter climate change and burning fossil fuels, but so is keeping our forests intact as carbon sinks and for bio-diversity".
"Mr Cavasinni bought it in 2012 in a fire-sale from the banks, and there's a long history of no-one wanting to locate there, because of the number of threatened species, both plants and wildlife," Mr Ryan said.
He said various projects had been proposed for HEZ, including an ammonium nitrate facility in 2014 and a Chinese-backed coal-fired power station in 2019 - but none had succeeded.
"Even Cessnock Council has recommended much of the industrial land in the HEZ be zoned for environmental protection in its latest local strategic planning agrement," Mr Ryan said.
Birdlife Australia also praised renewable energy but said the Tomalpin woodlands were key sites for two endangered birds - the Regent Honeyeater and the Swift Parrot - and the battery farm should go elsewhere.
Cessnock Mayor Bob Pynsent said he had no details on the proposal but said the council would support it on appropriately zoned land.
He said an Ausgrid substation and Ulrich Aluminium were the only buildings on HEZ, and the site was suffering from vandalism and "hoons in cars".
Mr Wright said he knew HEZ's history.
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IN THE NEWS:
Ian Kirkwood
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
