Energy security and reliability across NSW is set to improve with 6 new firming capacity projects due to come online from December 2025.
The Australian Government’s Capacity Investment Scheme and the NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap will fund these new projects.
The successful projects include:
- Akaysha Energy’s 4-hour battery, with 415 MW capacity and 1,660 MWh storage capacity, located in the Orana Renewable Energy Zone in Wellington, central-west NSW
- AGL Energy’s 2-hour battery, with 500 MW capacity and 1,000 MWh storage capacity, located at AGL’s Liddell site in Muswellbrook
- Iberdrola Australia’s 2-hour battery, with 65 MW capacity and 130 MWh storage capacity, located in Smithfield, Sydney
- Enel X Australia’s 3 separate virtual power plants, totalling 95MW capacity with minimum dispatch duration of 2 hours.
The projects will deliver more than 1GW of firming capacity into the network at short notice. This is equal to more than 8% of the total 2022/23 NSW summer peak demand.
Firming capacity is flexible energy supply that can be activated to top-up supply in the electricity grid when there’s a sudden increase in demand, or when renewable energy sources (such as wind and solar) aren’t producing as much electricity.
The Capacity Investment Scheme is a national framework to:
- increase new dispatchable capacity
- deliver clean, cheap and reliable energy for Australia’s rapidly changing market.
