Built on the site of a shuttered coal-fired power station in Victoria, Australia, the 150 MWh Hazelwood Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) supports solar energy installations in the region and provides grid stabilization services. Commissioned in 2023, the facility is a joint venture between Eku Energy and Engie, and is Australia’s largest battery storage site. U.S.-based Fluence operates Hazelwood and supplies its Gridstack batteries.
According to Fluence, Hazelwood faced challenges with availability stemming from batteries discharging to below required thresholds. In addition, operators had to be able to manage node balancing operations during off hours when field engineers were not available. Furthermore, there is the ongoing issue of fulfilling contracted supplies of electricity to the grid while optimizing revenue.
A key element of Fluence’s operations is its Digital Services Center (DSC) in Bengaluru, India, which provides a central location for managing the company’s deployed BESS installations worldwide. These facilities produce about 1,000 terabytes of data related to system performance, reliability and potential optimizations.
Fluence said its DSC worked with services teams in Australia managing Hazelwood to develop technical improvements. These included a software algorithm to protect the system from dropping below its state of charge threshold and auto-calibration system to address node dropouts without the need for constant human intervention. The DCS and field teams also worked with Engie to improve energy trading schemes.
The combination of the DSC team’s remote monitoring and analysis capabilities and the Australia team’s onsite presence has created a valuable operational model that minimizes the need for reactive interventions while ensuring optimal system performance, Fluence said. Future improvements will include AI-supported automation for routine tasks, freeing human experts to focus on complex challenges where experience and judgment are more usually employed.
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