ElectraNet chief executive Steve Masters says the battery at Dalyrmple will strengthen Australia’s power grid and improve local power reliability.

“It will provide both regulated network services and competitive market services to ensure it’s being fully utilised and, importantly for lower Yorke Peninsula customers, it will help to power their homes and businesses in the event of an unplanned network outage,” Masters said today.

He said that, on average, the battery could provide back-up power for 4500 customers in the area for two-three hours while connection to the grid was being restored.

The battery will be charged by input from AGL’s Wattle Point Wind Farm and rooftop solar.

The 30MW/8MWh facility,  7km south-west of Stansbury, includes 2268 batteries linked to six transformers using more than 28 kilometres of cable.

The local federal MP Rowan Ramsey said the Dalrymple battery would provide more reliable power for customers at the fringe of the South Australian grid.

“The battery is strategically located to instantly respond to the intermittency and variability of power generated from nearby wind farms at the tip of the Yorke Peninsula,” he said.

“It’s storage capacity will help keep the lights on in the event of a network issue further up the grid.”

South Australia also hosts a 100MW Tesla battery facility, near Jamestown, which opened in late 2017.

A report on the Tesla facility’s performance in its first year, by engineering firm Aurecon, found the battery had exceeded expectations.

The report found the battery’s response time is 100 milliseconds – which means it can go from full output and back within the blink of an eye.

It also suggests the battery has saved the electricity grid nearly $40 million in its first year.

– with AAP