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Project News · Oceania · Storage

Australia picks 4.2GW/16.1GWh of batteries in one tender — here is who will build and own them

Project Desk · September 2026 · Reading time: 4 min

The Australian government has selected 15 large-scale battery projects totalling 4.2 GW / 16.1 GWh under Tender 8 of the federal Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), announced in late June 2026 — a single procurement expected to unlock around A$6 billion (US$4.1 billion) in private investment across the National Electricity Market. Queensland took the largest share with 2,150 MW / 8,413 MWh across seven projects, followed by Victoria (875 MW / 3,533 MWh), New South Wales (830 MW / 2,270 MWh) and South Australia (350 MW / 1,408 MWh).

Who won what: the developers behind the 15 projects

Under the CIS, winners are the project developers, who hold a 20-year revenue underwriting agreement (a Long-Term Energy Service Agreement, LTESA). The table below lists every project-attributable award disclosed in the results:

ProjectStateCapacityDeveloper
Rutherglen BatteryQueensland400 MW / 1.6 GWhAmpyr Energy
Grahams BatteryQueensland350 MW / 1.428 GWhAmpyr Energy
Wimpole BatteryVictoria375 MW / 1.522 GWhAmpyr Energy
Fourth Ampyr projectNot disclosedPart of 1,425 MW / 5,163 MWh totalAmpyr Energy
Gelston Energy ParkNew South Wales400 MW / 1.6 GWhAscera Energy
Two SA projectsSouth Australia350 MW / 1,408 MWh combinedPotentia Energy
Edify projects (names not disclosed)Multi-state500 MW / 2 GWh totalEdify Energy
Remaining 9 projectsQLD / NSW / VIC / SABalance of 4.2 GW / 16.1 GWhNot disclosed in tender announcement

Ampyr Energy was the tender's largest winner with four projects totalling 1,425 MW / 5,163 MWh across Queensland, Victoria and a third state, followed by Edify Energy (500 MW / 2 GWh) and Potentia Energy (480 MW / 1,928 MWh, two projects in South Australia).

A note on ownership: the winner is not always the owner

A structural feature of Australian tenders that international readers should understand: the developer that wins a CIS contract is frequently not the entity that owns the asset at commercial operation. LTESA-backed projects are bankable the moment they are awarded, which makes them attractive for sell-downs — developers routinely recycle capital by selling majority or minority stakes to infrastructure funds, superannuation investors and utilities between award and completion. Ownership information in this article reflects the developers named in the tender results; the platform will track ownership changes as the 15 projects move toward financial close and construction.

Key facts
· CIS Tender 8: 15 BESS projects, 4.2 GW / 16.1 GWh across NEM states; ~A$6bn private investment
· Developers named: Ampyr Energy (largest, 4 projects), Edify Energy, Potentia Energy, Ascera Energy
· AEMO's 2026 Integrated System Plan doubled its 2030 grid-scale battery outlook to 33 GW
· NSW concurrently tendering ~12 GWh of long-duration storage (Tender 9); WA backing a 50 MW / 500 MWh, 10-hour vanadium flow battery at Kalgoorlie with up to A$150m

State-backed contracts as the coal replacement mechanism

The CIS works through Long-Term Energy Service Agreements — revenue underwriting contracts that de-risk dispatchable capacity so projects can reach financial close. With coal retirements accelerating, the mechanism has become Australia's central instrument for replacing firm generation: tenders 7 through 10 progressed in quick succession through mid-2026, and Western Australia's Tender 11, launched in August 2026, seeks a further 1.8 GW of renewable capacity alongside the state's push to retire remaining state-owned coal by the end of 2029.

Duration is the next frontier. New South Wales' long-duration storage tender requires an equivalent of at least eight hours of contracted capacity, and Western Australia is evaluating proposals for the Kalgoorlie vanadium flow battery — a 10-hour system supporting a mining town connected by a thin transmission line. Idemitsu Australia has separately proposed a 108 MW / 864 MWh flow battery at the former Muswellbrook coal mine site.

For storage suppliers, Australia's tenders are among the world's most transparent procurement pipelines: volumes, evaluation weightings and target dates are published in advance, and developer identities are disclosed with the results. Winning positions increasingly require local content commitments — the Tender 8 round included A$52 million allocated to Australian-made steel — a signal of where procurement conditions in other mature markets are heading.

Sources
  1. Enerdata — CIS Tender 8 results; WA Tender 11, 24 June 2026 / 25 August 2026
  2. Daily Energy News — Tender 8 state-by-state breakdown and named projects, 2026
  3. Hydropower & Dams International — NSW Tender 9, 2026
  4. RenewEconomy — Kalgoorlie VBESS, 2026

Ownership status as disclosed at tender award; will be updated at financial close. Project names for Edify Energy and 9 further projects were not disclosed in public releases.

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