The Site
The proposed site is approximately 2km north-east of Wellington, adjacent to TransGrid’s 330kV zone substation as depicted below.
The BESS will occupy an area of ~10 hectares adjacent to the electricity grid and sharing a boundary with the TransGrid substation, this will reduce the need for high voltage power lines and visual impacts.
Why Wellington
Wellington is located on a robust part of the TransGrid 330kV transmission system and within the Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) which is expected to host 3,000MW of new wind and solar generation. As conventional power plants retire over the next decade, batteries will play an increasingly important role in managing security of supply and addressing the intermittency of renewables, especially in areas of high-penetration such as the REZ.