BLIND CREEK SOLAR FARM AND BATTERY

About Octopus Australia

Octopus Australia (OA) is a renewable energy fund manager and developer harnessing capital and expertise to accelerate the energy transition. OA manages investment funds on behalf of institutional and wholesale investors in Australia, for investment into large-scale Australian renewable energy projects. These funds invest into projects from development through to construction and long-term ownership for the lifetime of the assets. In addition to being fund manager, OA also holds direct investment in, and provides development, construction and asset management services to the projects. OA has an operating and development portfolio of over $11bn across wind, solar and battery storage which includes the operational 333MW Darlington Point Solar Farm and the 180MW Dulacca Wind Farm.


OA is part of Octopus Group. Founded in 2000, the Octopus Group of companies operates in the investment management, venture capital, energy and real estate industries. It currently has over 4000 employees and $22 billion under management. Investing in renewable energy is a core activity of Octopus Group, which owns and operates over 300 assets globally, totalling 3GW in generation capacity.

About the Project

The Blind Creek Solar Farm and Battery Project (the 'Project') consists of a solar farm of 300MWac/370MWdc and DC-coupled 243MW/486MWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), which is located off Tarago Road, approximately 8 kilometres (km) north-east of Bungendore, and 32 km northeast of Canberra, NSW, Australia, The project area is located within the Queanbeyan Palerang local Government area.

The delivery of the solar farm and BESS will be delivered via a split contracting strategy. The Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor, Gransolar Construction Australia Pty Ltd (EPC Contractor or GRS) will be responsible for design and construction of the Solar Farm, BESS Balance of Plant (BoP) and ancillary systems. The EPC contractor will be responsible for overall commissioning of the Facility and BESS including grid commissioning.

The BESS supplier will provide the BESS units and Power Plant Controller (PPC) and commissioning services for supplied equipment. While most Solar PV and BESS components are procured internationally, local works include logistics, construction, project management and commissioning. The agreements for operations, service, and maintenance (including an Operations & Maintenance contract with GRS or the O&M Contractor), along with life cycle replacement, will further support local content contributions.

The Project will include the connection of the Facility to the existing Transgrid Services transmission network (TL6) via a cut-in to the existing 330 kV line which runs from Canberra to Sydney. A grid connection high voltage contractor will be appointed by Transgrid under a separate connection works contract to design and construct the grid connection assets required to connect to the 330kV Transgrid Services network.

Project Specifications

Project location: 114 Currandooley Rd, Bungendore NSW 2621 (35 km north-east of Canberra)
System type & configuration: Single Axis Tracker Solar Photovoltaic (PV) + Lithium-Ion
Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) DC-coupled
Solar PV capacity: 370.8 MWdc / 300.0 MWac (300 MWac Point of Connection)
BESS capacity: 243 MW / 486 MWh useable energy storage (at point of connection)
Inverter: SMA SC4200-UP, 90 unitsBESS: Wartsila Gridsolv QuantumHE, 360 units
Power Plant Controller: Wartsila GEMSDC:DC Converter: SMA DPS-500, 540 units
Point of Connection: Cut-in to 330 kV within TransGrid transmission network

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