Renewable energy and storage is greatly impacting Australia’s mining industry by providing a solution to long-term power reliability and a reduction in emissions and costs.
The mining sector is looking for cost-effective power supply for remote applications where there may not be a reliable source of energy, and energy storage is emerging as one of the best solutions.
A lack, or disruption, of power to remote sites like mining operations can cause costly delays. In addition to achieving power security, the mining sector is also seeking ways to displace diesel generators that contribute to emissions and are expensive to operate.
Energy storage from lithium batteries, flow batteries and microgrids, to various hybrid generation energy storage systems are being considered by mining companies who are planning long-term. Industry experts will discuss how these storage technologies can benefit the mining sector at the Australian Energy Storage Conference and Exhibition (AES 2018), running from May 23-24 at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
Ike Hong, vice president and head of power solutions division at Kokam, has helped to successfully deliver more than 182MW of ESS solutions to various utilities in South Korea, Australia and the US over the past ten years.
Hong is focused on advancing high power/low energy lithium battery storage technology to provide inertia, spinning reserve and grid support needed in off-grid mining applications. It’s these remote sites that often have the most difficulty securing energy security, while being one of the applications that need it most.
However, for some remote sites, batteries are only one part of a wider microgrid solution. Microgrids can help mining and remote applications lower fuel costs and improve supply reliability.
Juergen Zimmerman, business development and technology manager, microgrids and distributed generation for ABB, is responsible for developing innovative solutions to how microgrids can be deployed in off-grid and on-grid applications. His presentation at AES 2018 will look at remote energy systems and review two microgrid business cases for off-grid and grid-connected microgrids and how they deliver a better value proposition to the end customer.
Hear from Ike Hong and Juergen Zimmerman, among other mining and energy storage experts, at the Australian Energy Storage Conference and Exhibition. To register for the conference or the free exhibition, visit www.australianenergystorage.com.au/register.
