Australia’s growing fleet of big batteries, and its rejuvenated of pumped hydro storage, enjoyed record revenues from energy market volatility in the June quarter, but they were nowhere to be seen when the price cap was imposed and the market suspended.
Big batteries are relatively new to the Australian grid – the Tesla big battery only began operations in late 2017 – and have mostly been short-duration and focused on providing grid services such as frequency control and network support, where they have achieved great success, and made lots of money.
But until recently there hasn’t been much money to be made in the “arbitrage market”, buying electricity at the spot price when it is low, and selling it at higher prices when demand rises and supply dwindles. In the June quarter, that all changed.
The Australian Energy Market Operator’s latest Quarterly Energy Dynamics…
Batteries and pumps revel in market volatility; the price cap not so much
