australia

Australian power solutions provider MPower is to deliver a grid-connected utility scale energy storage facility in Queensland, Australia.

The $2m project will be the country’s biggest energy storage system connected to a solar PV plant, currently under construction. It will store generated electrical energy during periods of excess capacity and release it during periods of peak demand.

Emerson Network Power (Emerson) has secured a deal with Perth-based distributor UPS West to sell the company’s uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and thermal management solutions in Australia.

UPS West will offer Emnerson’s AC UPS Liebert NXC, Liebert GXT3 and the Liebert DM thermal management solution. The Australian company will also have access to trainings and technical resources of Emerson.

Emerson aims to make the company’s solutions more available to a wider marketplace.

According to UPS West, there is a gap in the supply of power and thermal data room solutions in small to medium sized businesses in metro and regional Western Australia.

"As we operate in the datacentre industry, we have found a need for the Liebert DM for small rooms in major buildings in the central business district as well as in regional sites,” said UPS West business development manager Ian Hart.

“UPS West is fast establishing a foot hold in the WA market by offering customers industry leading IT infrastructure and management solutions and we look forward to working with them as a valued addition to Emerson’s growing network,” said Emerson director of national sales Robert Linsdell.

This summer, Emerson appointed Bangladeshi company Computer Source as its distributor for UPS in the growing IT market of Bangladesh.

Temporary power provider APR Energy has secured a deal with Australian state-owned utility Horizon Power for a peaking power plant in Port Hedland, Western Australia.

The plant will feature four of APR Energy’s dual-fuel mobile gas turbines, producing 30MW of power each. The plant is set to run as a bridging solution for at least 30 months until Australia’s electricity power generator and marketer TransAlta Energy has built a permanent power plant, scheduled for 2017.

The peaking plant will be designed for the extreme conditions in Western Australia, where temperatures can reach 48°C in the summer. The contract provides an option of the additional installation of two aero-derivative turbines, if capacity requirements grow.

APR Energy has now a generation capacity of 410MW in the Asia Pacific region. "With this contract, we once again see turbines as the most, if not only, viable technology for utility customers needing large-scale, rapidly-deployed solutions that provide greater grid stability, low capital costs and low emissions,” said APR Energy’s managing director of Asia Pacific, Clive Turton.

The contract replaces APR Energy's earlier agreement with Forge Group Power Party Limited, which declared bankruptcy.

Horizon Power serves more than 10,000 businesses and large industrial customers as well as more than 100,000 residents, across a range of 2.3m sq. kilometres in Western Australia.