Bouldercombe battery has started charging again (Thursday evening 28th September 2023)

Well, that did not take long … damaged by fire on Tuesday evening 26th September 2023 and so disconnected from the grid, I was curious to see how long it would take until it was back up and running again.

So I set an email-based alert in the ‘Notifications’ widget inside of ez2view to alert me when either DUID (load-side or generation-side) showed any non-zero number, and it’s just started charging this evening:

2023-09-28-ez2view-Alert

Here’s a quick snapshot from the ‘Station Details’ widget (a bit like the ‘Unit Dashboard’ widget, but focused in this case on the Load side of the equation):

2023-09-28-at-19-05-ez2view-BBATTERY

Let’s see how this goes…

 

 

PS1 more detail with ‘next day public’ data

It’s now Friday morning 29th September and I wondered what would be visible in the additional ‘next day public’ data published by AEMO at 04:00 NEM time today.  Here’s that same widget, at 08:55 this morning but now looking back 7 days for a bit more context:

2023-09-29-at-08-55-ez2view-BBATTERY

A couple quick points:

1)  Since coming offline Tuesday evening due to the fire, the ‘PASA Avail’ for the unit has been mostly 0MW … except for a short burst of (charging) activity Thursday evening.

2)  We see in the highlighted bid that:

(a)  it bid 5MW at ‘fixed load’ (i.e. an inflexible ‘must run’ bidding profile NEMDE slots in at the bottom of the bid stack that is typically used when a plant requires testing).

(b)  actual consumption (the black line) wobbled around that 5MW mark a little

3)  The plant’s not run since that time (either charging or discharging).

It seems fair to assume that it will be some while (I’m guessing at least weeks?) until the plant is back to full capability, and able to resume commissioning.

 

 

PS2 no further announcement (that I can see) from Genex

Remembering that I’d been pointed at the Genex company page on the ASX website for their Wednesday announcement about ‘minor fire incident at Bouldercombe Battery Project’, there is currently no subsequent update:

2023-09-29-ASX-Genex

 

 

PS3 no further updates from Government sources

In the first article, I’d included links to an update from Queensland Police News, and also from Queensland Fire and Emergency Services.  As of Friday morning there’s been no further updates, on these sites, other than that QFES has appended to the top of their article since I checked on Wednesday:

‘**Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) crews are no longer required on scene at this incident.**’

 

 

PS4 on 17th October 2023 … no, it’s actually not yet back into operations.

Thought it would be worthwhile to clarify that ‘Not so fast … the Bouldercombe Battery is not yet back into service, after the fire’ to help prevent further misunderstanding:

 


About the Author

Paul McArdle
One of three founders of Global-Roam back in 2000, Paul has been CEO of the company since that time. As an author on WattClarity, Paul's focus has been to help make the electricity market more understandable.

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