Formerly | ERM Power |
---|---|
Industry | Energy |
Founded | 1980 |
Founder | Trevor St Baker |
Headquarters | , Australia |
Area served | Australia |
Key people | Greg Joiner (Chief executive officer) |
Number of employees | 350 |
Parent | Shell Australia |
Website | www.shellenergy.com.au |
Shell Energy Australia provides gas, electricity, environmental products and energy productivity services to commercial and industrial customers.
ERM Power was founded by Trevor St Baker as a specialist Australian energy advisory firm in 1980. The company transformed into a power development company in the mid-1990s to capture opportunities arising from the deregulation of the Australian electricity industry. [1] In 2007 the company diversified into electricity retailing in response to further privatisation and vertical integration of the Australian energy industry. [1] ERM Power listed on the Australian Securities Exchange on 10 December 2010. [2] It launched the ERM Business Energy brand in 2012, commenced retailing to the small and medium enterprise (SME) market in 2013 and entered the U.S. retail electricity market by acquiring Source Power & Gas headquartered in Texas in 2015. [3]
Shell Australia acquired ERM Power in November 2019 with the company delisted from the ASX. [4] [5] [6] ERM Power was rebranded as Shell Energy in February 2021. [7] [8]
Shell Energy retails electricity to large commercial and industrial energy users in Australia (except for Northern Territory) and gas to commercial and industrial energy users in New South Wales and Victoria. [9] Shell Energy owns two gas-fired peaking power stations in Darling Downs, Queensland, and Neerabup, Western Australia, and is developing a 120-megawatt solar energy development in Queensland. [10]
In February 2022 Shell Energy acquired residential energy retailer Powershop Australia. [11] [12]
Gangarri Solar Development, a 120-megawatt solar energy development, located in inland Queensland. [13] Gangarri will generate solar power from about 330,000 photovoltaic panels that turn sunlight into electricity – enough to run 50,000 homes. It will reduce emissions by around 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum. [14]
In January 2023 Shell Energy acquired the development rights for a 500MW/1000MWh Battery Energy Storage System project, located within the former Wallerawang Power Station site near Lithgow. [15] [16] [17]
In October 2022 the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced $9.1 million in funding to Shell Energy to implement load control across at least 40 commercial and industrial customer sites to demonstrate flexible demand capacity. [18] [19]
In October 2022 Shell Energy announced it would jointly develop one of the largest energy storage projects in NSW, partnering with AMPYR Australia on a 500MW/1000MWh battery located in Wellington. [20] [21] [22]
Also in October 2022, Shell Energy entered into a 50/50 joint partnership with Foresight Group to acquire Kondinin Energy. This acquisition was Shell’s first Western Australian renewables development – and first Western Australian wind project. The Kondinin Energy project is located approximately 245 km east of Perth and comprises various stages of 370MW of developments across wind, solar and battery energy storage system assets. [23] [24] [25] [26]
In May 2021 the Government of New South Wales announced that Shell Energy and Edify Energy had been awarded a 10-year contract, including a 60MW/120MWh retail contract coupled with a 100-megawatt Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). [27] [28] The project has been dubbed the 'Riverina Energy Storage System (RESS)' and will be built alongside Edify's 333MW Darlington Point Solar Farm. The NSW Government noted that the RESS would help to mitigate the region's energy supply concerns due to the planned closure of the coal-powered Liddell Power Station in 2023. [29]
Shell Energy operates Oakey Power Station, a 332-megawatt peaking power station located at Oakey in Queensland, and Neerabup Power Station, a 330-megawatt peaking power station in Western Australia which opened in 2009 at a cost of $435 million. [30] [31]
Shell's target is to become a net zero emissions energy business by 2050, in step with society's progress in achieving the goal of the UN Paris Agreement on climate change. [32] As part of this commitment, ERM Power secured funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to help manufacturing businesses in Queensland understand what is required to make the switch to clean energy. Its $600,000 programme included $250,000 in ARENA funding. [33] In October 2022, ARENA announced $9.1 million in funding to Shell Energy as part of the $31.6 million ‘Commercialising Smart Energy Hubs’ project. Shell Energy will implement load control across at least 40 commercial and industrial sites in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria to demonstrate an estimated 21.5 MW of flexible demand capacity. [34]
Peaking power plants, also known as peaker plants, and occasionally just "peakers", are power plants that generally run only when there is a high demand, known as peak demand, for electricity. Because they supply power only occasionally, the power supplied commands a much higher price per kilowatt hour than base load power. Peak load power plants are dispatched in combination with base load power plants, which supply a dependable and consistent amount of electricity, to meet the minimum demand.
ActewAGL is an Australian multi-utility joint venture company that provides utility services in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and south-east New South Wales. The company was formed in October 2000 between the Australian Gas Light Company and ACTEW Corporation.
The Moss Landing Power Plant is a natural gas powered electricity generation plant located in Moss Landing, California, United States, at the midpoint of Monterey Bay. Its large stacks are landmarks, visible throughout the Monterey Bay Area. The plant is owned and operated by Houston-based Dynegy and currently has a generation capacity of 1020 MW (net) from its two combined cycle generation units. It was once the largest power plant in the state of California, with a generation capacity of 2560 MW, before its two large supercritical steam units were retired in 2016.
The AES Corporation is an American utility and power generation company. It owns and operates power plants, which it uses to generate and sell electricity to end users and intermediaries like utilities and industrial facilities. AES is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, and is one of the world's leading power companies, generating and distributing electric power in 15 countries and employing 10,500 people worldwide. AES Corporation is a global Fortune 500 power company. AES Ranks in the Top Ten of Fast Company's 2022 Best Workplaces for Innovators.
Solar power is a fast-growing industry in Australia. As of June 2023, Australia's over 3.52 million solar PV installations had a combined capacity of 32,095 MW photovoltaic (PV) solar power, of which at least 4,389 MW were installed in the preceding 12 months. In 2019, 59 solar PV projects with a combined capacity of 2,881 MW were either under construction, constructed or due to start construction having reached financial closure. Solar accounted for 12.4% of Australia's total electrical energy production in 2021.
Renewable energy in Australia includes wind power, hydroelectricity, solar photovoltaics, heat pumps, geothermal, wave and solar thermal energy.
CS Energy is an Australia-based electricity generating company fully owned by the Government of Queensland with its head office located in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. The company was established in 1997 and employs more than 500 staff. Adam Aspinall is the Board Chair and Darren Busine is the Chief Executive Officer.
The Desert Sunlight Solar Farm is a 550-megawatt (MWAC) photovoltaic power station approximately six miles north of Desert Center, California, United States, in the Mojave Desert. It uses approximately 8.8 million cadmium telluride modules made by the US thin-film manufacturer First Solar. As of Fall 2015, the Solar Farm has the same 550 MW installed capacity as the Topaz Solar Farm in the Carrizo Plain region of Central California, making both of them tied for the second largest completed solar plants by installed capacity.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is an independent agency of the Australian federal government, established in 2012 to manage Australia's renewable energy programs, with the objective of increasing supply and competitiveness of Australian renewable energy sources.
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A battery storage power station is a type of energy storage power station that uses a group of batteries to store electrical energy. Battery storage is the fastest responding dispatchable source of power on electric grids, and it is used to stabilise those grids, as battery storage can transition from standby to full power in under a second to deal with grid contingencies.
Aurora Solar Thermal Power Project was a planned solar power tower solar thermal power plant to be located north of Port Augusta in South Australia. It was planned to generate 150 MW of electricity after it was completed in 2020. Storage capacity would have been up to 8 hours at full power. The facility was expected to produce 495 GWh of electricity annually. It was to be 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of Port Augusta on Carriewerloo Station.
The Lincoln Gap Wind Farm is a wind farm in the vicinity of Lincoln Gap on northeastern Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, Australia. It consists of 59 wind turbines and generates a total of 212 MW of electricity. Construction began in late 2017 and was initially expected to be commissioned in late 2018. Construction was delayed in July 2018 when unexploded ordnance was discovered on the site, left from historic military testing. The site is not far from the Cultana Training Area.
Gannawarra Solar Farm is a photovoltaic solar power station in the Gannawarra Shire, 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) west of Kerang in the Australian state of Victoria. It generates up to 60 MWdc electricity and exports up to 50.61 MWAC to the National Electricity Market at 66 kV.
The Tesla Megapack is a large-scale rechargeable lithium-ion battery stationary energy storage product, intended for use at battery storage power stations, manufactured by Tesla Energy, the energy subsidiary of Tesla, Inc.
The Australia–Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink) is a proposed electricity infrastructure project that is planned to include the world's largest solar plant, the world's largest battery, and the world's longest submarine power cable.
Kidston Solar Project is a photovoltaic solar power station built on top of the former Kidston Gold Mine utilising the tailings storage facility in northern Queensland, Australia. The project consists of two solar farms, KS1 and KS2. The Kidston Solar Project is the first of four projects that comprise the Kidston Clean Energy Hub also occupying this area. A 250 megawatt (MW) hydro-pumped storage power generation project and a 150 MW wind farm make up the third and forth components. The site is located close to an existing substation and transmission line.
Snowy 2.0 Pumped Storage Power Station or Snowy Hydro 2.0 is a pumped-hydro battery megaproject in New South Wales, Australia. The dispatchable generation project connects two existing dams through a 27 kilometre underground tunnel and a new, underground pumped-hydro power station. Construction began in 2019. It is expected to supply two gigawatts of capacity and about 350,000 megawatt hours of large-scale storage to the national electricity market.