ESCRI: Australia’s first battery to deliver both regulated network and competitive market services

ESCRI (Energy Storage for Commercial Renewable Integration) is a first of its kind 30MW/8MWh battery at ElectraNet’s Dalrymple substation on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula. ARENA provided $12 million towards the $30 million project. ElectraNet developed and owns the battery, and AGL operates it under a long term lease.

ESCRI was the first large scale battery in the NEM to provide both regulated network services and competitive market services from the one asset. This needed a first of its kind commercial model, with a network service provider and a retailer sharing the battery. AGL trades the battery between 10% and 90% of capacity, so there is always capacity in reserve to respond to a network event. If grid supply is lost, the battery can run as a microgrid with the Wattle Point Wind Farm and local rooftop solar.

Martin advised ElectraNet on all aspects of the project, including:

• the ARENA funding agreement
• the EPC contract with Consolidated Power Projects, supported by ABB and Samsung
• the operations and maintenance agreement for through life support, with an availability guarantee
• the battery operating agreement and operating protocol with AGL
• regulatory advice on connection, the system integrity scheme and compliance

He gave strategic as well as legal advice and sat on the project’s Executive Project Steering Committee.

The battery has been in commercial operation since 14 December 2018. It can supply about 4,500 customers for two to three hours while grid supply is restored. In its first six months, it cut two outages that would have lasted around eight hours to around half an hour. Within its first two years, revenue from energy arbitrage and FCAS allowed ElectraNet to return the full $12 million ARENA grant. ESCRI won Energy Networks Australia’s 2019 Industry Innovation Award, and the project was completed in October 2021.

“ESCRI needed to deliver a first of its kind grid-connected battery that served both the network and the market. The task was to make the funding, delivery and operating arrangements work together, so ElectraNet kept the network benefit and AGL had a workable commercial position, while also delivering knowledge sharing and other benefits to ARENA.”

Martin Lovell, Partner

ESCRI was one of the first two grid scale battery projects in Australia that Martin was involved with and forms part of his long standing relationship with ElectraNet, which also includes Project EnergyConnect and Eyre Peninsula Link.

Client feedback

“Martin is one of our ‘go to’ lawyers, bringing excellent commercial nous and pragmatic decision making to help deliver complex, high value and business critical transactions. Martin’s ability to focus commercial and legal negotiations on the issues that matter has been key to our success in concluding transactions ahead of time and on budget. He is ‘magic circle’ quality.”

Sam Dighton, General Counsel, ElectraNet