redT enters Australian market, sells 1 MWh hybrid system to Monash Uni

AIM-listed energy storage company redT energy has entered the growing Australian energy storage market with the sale of a 300 kW, 1MWh hybrid energy storage system to Monash University. 

The system, which comprises 900 kWh of redT flow machines coupled with a 120 kW C1-rated lithium battery, will be deployed as an active energy storage infrastructure asset at Monash University’s new 11,400 m² Biomedical Learning and Teaching building. 

Coupled with on-site solar PV assets, the system will be used to maximise the use of renewable energy in order to reduce energy costs for campus buildings. This is expected to generate significant savings for the site and also open up potential new revenue streams, in the form of both contracted and merchant grid services. 

The system will be used as a flexible platform and will become part of the ‘Monash Microgrid’, in partnership with the Monash Energy Materials and Systems Institute (MEMSI). The project aims to integrate distributed renewables on the university campus in order to increase reliability and stability within the local grid and, in the future, allow for innovative, market-based peer-to-peer energy trading.

By combining redT’s vanadium flow machines with lithium batteries, the individual strengths of the two complementary technologies can be harnessed and provide a complete and financially robust energy storage solution. Whilst lithium batteries are able to deliver high power requirements, they can only be used for short periods and their usage must be carefully managed, due to their short life span. Flow machines, by comparison, address the weaknesses of lithium batteries.  Flow machines have electrolytes that never degrade and are therefore well suited to high-energy applications such as ‘solar firming’, which involves heavy daily cycling. 

Combined, the flow machine can act as the ‘workhorse’, doing 80% of the work each day, whilst the lithium element can be used infrequently to provide the final 20% of the power requirements. By taking this approach, both technologies can be used in harmony to provide customers with a low-cost technical solution that satisfies all the user’s needs.

redT energy CEO Scott McGregor  said renewable energy solutions coupled with storage are crucial to delivering long-term, low-cost, reliable and clean energy in Australia. He noted that vanadium flow machine technology was invented in Australia, so this project has special significance in bringing an Australian technology home.

Monash University Programme Director Tony Fullelove said, “Energy storage is an integral part of the Monash Microgrid and also offers a vital opportunity for further understanding, as the Australian energy industry grapples with the trilemma of providing sustainable power whilst keeping costs low and maintaining energy security.

“The hybrid solution offered by redT is particularly exciting as Monash will be using the energy component (flow machine) to shape the building load profile to minimise costs on a daily basis, whilst using the power component (lithium) to assist with the connection of the building to a highly intermittent and sustainable embedded generation network.”