Enel X in 5MWh Battery Storage Pilot for Australian Shopping Centres

Enel X will pilot the deployment of battery storage systems at two shopping centres in Australia with commercial real estate group Vicinity Centres. Vicinity Centres has dozens of retail properties around Australia in its portfolio. The company claimed it is committed to decarbonising its operations to achieve net zero status at its common mall areas by 2030, implementing an Integrated Energy Strategy. Since 2018 the company has deployed just under 33MW of solar PV at 22 of its facilities, investing AU$73 million (US$50.64 million) in the process.

Onsite battery energy storage system (BESS) technology will be deployed with a combined capacity “of over 5MWh” between the two shopping centres, according to Enel X. The BESS will be used to maximise the sites’ consumption of self-generated solar PV, reducing their reliance on grid energy. That should have the twin benefit of reducing Vicinity’s carbon footprint and electricity costs, but also reducing the strain the grid comes under, especially at times of peak demand.

Enel X’s head of energy storage in Australia Matt Schultz said, “These projects will help Vicinity reduce costs by optimising the batteries charge and discharge strategy with our proprietary optimisation software DER.OS. The batteries will store excess renewable energy when spot electricity prices are low or negative and will generate when the local network is peaking, and prices are high.” Schultz added that the onsite BESS will be onboarded to Enel X’s virtual power plant (VPP) platform, opening up new revenue streams such as through participation in the National Electricity Market (NEM) and its frequency control ancillary services (FCAS) markets which help balance the grid.