“World's first:” Hornsdale battery gets approval to provide critical inertia service to grid
The Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia, aka the “Tesla big battery”, has finally won approval to become the world’s first large battery to provide grid-scale inertial service. The approval comes from the Australian Energy Market Operator after nearly two years of trial and error, and is considered another important step towards managing the electricity grid with 100 per cent renewable energy and no coal and gas generators in operation. The Hornsdale battery, which is owned by Neoen and expanded to 150MW/193MWh in 2020 to help provide this additional service, will be the first of many such batteries to operate on what is known as an “advanced” or “grid-shaping” inverter. This inverter is capable of providing many of the critical network services normally provided by thermal power, but requires detailed testing to help manage the transition from large spinning machines to precise digital technology. The Hornsdale battery uses Tesla’s “virtual machine mode” technology, and this