Hyosung Heavy Industries locks in first Australian ESS project

Hyosung Heavy Industries has secured its first energy storage system (ESS) construction project in Australia, the company said Thursday.

Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon, fourth from right, poses for a commemorative photo with a delegation from the Business Council of Australia, including CEO Bran Black, third from right, during a meeting to discuss cooperation. [HYOSUNG]

Hyosung Heavy Industries has secured its first energy storage system (ESS) construction project in Australia, the company said Thursday.

Hyosung signed a 142.5 billion won ($96.26 million) engineering, procurement and construction contract on Tuesday with Australia’s Tangkam BESS. The project involves building a battery-based ESS with a capacity of 100 megawatts and 200 megawatt-hours in Tangkam, Queensland. Commercial operations are scheduled to begin in late 2027.

While Hyosung Heavy Industries has previously operated power equipment businesses in Australia, this marks its first ESS supply project in the country.

The Australian government aims to increase the share of renewable energy in its electricity generation mix to 82 percent by 2030. Expanding ESS capacity is considered essential to achieving that goal.

Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind depend heavily on weather conditions, which can lead to instability in power grids. ESS facilities help address this issue by storing surplus electricity and supplying it when needed, while also maintaining grid stability through real-time frequency regulation.

Cho Hyun-joon, chairman of Hyosung Group, said the competitiveness of the future power industry will depend on solutions capable of controlling the entire power grid.

“By combining Hyosung Heavy Industries’ capabilities in high-voltage direct current [HVDC] transmission with the trust we have built in ultra-high-voltage transformers and circuit breakers, as well as future core technologies such as ESS, we will strengthen the global presence of Korean power equipment as a total solution provider and lead export growth,” Cho said.

Ahead of the contract signing, Cho held meetings with executives from major Australian utility companies and senior Australian government officials involved in energy policy.

Last year, he met Kevin Rudd, former Australian prime minister and current ambassador to the United States, to discuss Australia’s energy infrastructure issues. In January this year, he also explored cooperation opportunities with a delegation from the Business Council of Australia.

Hyosung Heavy Industries plans to accelerate its push into the Australian power grid market by further advancing technologies such as static synchronous compensators, known as Statcoms, and HVDC systems.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY LEE SU-JEONG [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]