Stanwell — Queensland, Australia’s largest electricity generator and a government-owned corporation — and an unnamed “established global pumped hydro operator” are collaborating in a joint venture to purchase the Cressbrook Pumped Hydro Energy Storage (PHES) Project – also known as ‘Big T’ – from developer BE Power.
The proposed project, in its early stages of development, is located at Lake Cressbrook, 64 km south of Stanwell’s Tarong power stations, and will have a capacity of 400 MW of energy for up to 10 hours. The JV will progress the project to a final investment decision, Stanwell said, and as part of the arrangements, Stanwell will dispatch the energy generated by Cressbrook PHES.
The price of sale was not made public by the involved parties.
The project will use Lake Cressbrook as the lower reservoir with a new upper reservoir constructed on land that will be owned by Stanwell and its project partner, 2.1 km northeast of the lake. During periods of high electricity demand or to firm the grid, up to 6.4 GL of water would be released from the upper reservoir downstream into Lake Cressbrook, driving two 200 MW turbines for a period of up to 10 hours. Once this cycle is complete, the upper reservoir will be replenished with water pumped from Lake Cressbrook in readiness for the next release.
Stanwell’s Asset Maintenance Company will also be given preference to service and maintain the facility over its projected 50-year operational life.
Additional investment partners will be sought to help fund the construction. Cressbrook PHES is anticipated to commence operations in mid-2033 and would meet about 25% of Stanwell’s future energy storage requirements.
“The development of medium duration energy storage, like pumped hydro, is crucial to enable the continued build out of renewable energy generation,” Michael O’Rourke, Stanwell’s CEO, said. “Cressbrook PHES also supports the ongoing development of our Tarong Clean Energy Hub.”
In other Queensland pumped storage news, Queensland Hydro recently awarded four more contracts for its Borumba Pumped Hydro Project, securing services for underground technical and management services, dams design, and front-end engineering design documentation.
The proposed Borumba Pumped Hydro Project at Lake Borumba, located near Imbil involves building a new upper reservoir, as well as a new dam wall that will replace the existing Borumba Dam wall and increase Lake Borumba’s storage capacity from 46 to 224 GL. The project would have the capacity to provide up to 2,000 MW of electricity for up to 24 hours at a time, according to a release.
