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11: Rio Tinto plc
11
Rio Tinto plc
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A massive battery project under construction at Rio Tinto’s Tom Price iron ore mining operation in the Pilbara, Australia, will make it easier for mines to achieve a “100% renewables” target.
The 45 MW big battery by Hitachi ABB acts as a “virtual synchronous machine” (VSM), also known as a “grid forming inverter,” and has energy storage capacity of 15 minutes, or 12 MWh.
Stephen Sproull, a senior engineer at Hitachi ABB, said at the time that the Tom Price battery would be the biggest of its type in Australia, and the biggest battery in the world that is not connected to a national interconnected grid.
The battery acts as a virtual spinning reserve, allowing the mine to switch off expensive and highly polluting gas turbines currently used as a backup for fossil fuel turbines.
In case there is a problem the battery steps in and has the capacity to hold the grid together until the back up turbines come on line.
“The aim is to switch off synchronous machines such as gas turbines today, but also lay the technical foundation to operate with no synchronous generators in the future and source all electricity from renewables,” said Sproull in an interview.
