Chinchilla Battery

Fast facts

100MW / 200MWh battery
80 Tesla Megapack 2 systems
$150 million investment
Operational May 2024

Project overview

The Chinchilla Battery is a $150 million project to add a grid-scale battery to CS Energy's Kogan Creek site near Chinchilla on the Western Downs.

Large-scale batteries are an important next step in creating a more flexible and diversified energy portfolio for CS Energy and our owners the people of Queensland.

The Chinchilla Battery will have a discharge capacity of 100 megawatts and a storage capacity of 200 megawatt hours - enough to power 33,000 homes in the evening peak for two hours before needing to recharge.

It will use lithium iron phosphate (also known as lithium ferro phosphate [LFP], or LiFePO4) batteries, which are the safest lithium batteries currently available.

The battery is the inaugural project in the Kogan Clean Energy Hub where we are also building the Kogan Renewable Hydrogen Demonstration Plant.

Benefits

Batteries are fast and flexible, and are expected to play an increasingly important role in Australia's power grid. They can rapidly respond when there is a sudden gap in electricity supply in the grid, which helps to reduce wholesale price volatility.

Batteries support greater uptake of renewable energy by charging up during the middle of the day when there is often a surplus of solar energy and then releasing it during the evening peak demand period.

The Chinchilla Battery's location next to Kogan Creek Power Station and will utilise the site's existing attributes of grid connection, water, land and workforce to create new opportunities.

It will also provide our employees with to new assets, training and skills as Australia’s energy sector transforms.

timeline

The construction contractor for the Chinchilla Battery is Downer. Construction has been completed and the battery is in the commissioning phase. It is expected to be operational in May 2024.

Image: The Chinchilla Battery in August 2023.

community

CS Energy will keep our immediate neighbours and the Chinchilla community informed as this project progresses.

For more information, contact the Project Manager on telephone 07 4665 2714 or send us an email.