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 / 2,720 MWh) and South Australia (350 MW / 1,408 MWh).
Under the CIS, winners are the project developers, who hold a 20-year revenue underwriting agreement (a Long-Term Energy Service Agreement, LTESA). The full award list was disclosed with the results. The table lists every project with its developer, owner or financial backer where this differs from the developer, and the key dates disclosed so far — most projects sit between award and financial close, so several date fields are not yet public.
| Project | State | Capacity (MW / MWh) | Developer | Owner / backer | Construction date | Financing date | Commission date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rutherglen Battery (Bororen) | Queensland | 400 / 1,602 | Ampyr Energy | Joint development: Ampyr, Gryphon Energy and Red Hill Renewable Energy | Scheduled 2027 | Not yet disclosed | Targeted ~2029, timed to the Gladstone Power Station retirement |
| Grahams Battery (Kogan) | Queensland | 350 / 1,428 | Ampyr Energy | Same as developer | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
| Bulabul 1 Battery (Wuuluman) | New South Wales | 300 / 600 | Ampyr Energy | Same as developer (Bulabul is owned by Ampyr Australia) | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
| Wimpole Battery (Bunyip North) | Victoria | 375 / 1,533 | Ampyr Energy | Same as developer | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
| Ganymirra Energy Storage System (Majors Creek) | Queensland | 250 / 1,000 | Edify Energy | Same as developer | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
| Majors Creek Energy Storage System (Majors Creek) | Queensland | 250 / 1,000 | Edify Energy | Same as developer | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
| Oaky Creek BESS (Ellesmere, adjacent Halys substation) | Queensland | 250 / 1,000 | Akaysha Energy | Akaysha Energy — BlackRock-backed since 2022 | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
| Woonga Creek BESS (Lower Wonga) | Queensland | 350 / 1,223 | Lightsource bp | Same as developer | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
| Gelston Energy Park (McCullys Gap) | New South Wales | 400 / 1,600 | Ascera Energy | Ascera Energy — funded by Federation Asset Management (reported) | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
| Ridgey Creek BESS (Parkes) | New South Wales | 130 / 520 | Potentia Energy | Same as developer | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
| Blanche BESS (Compton) | South Australia | 125 / 508 | Potentia Energy | Same as developer | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
| Emeroo BESS (Wami Kata) | South Australia | 225 / 900 | Potentia Energy | Same as developer | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
| Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub Side B (Plumpton) | Victoria | 200 / 800 | Equis Australia | Equis 51% / SEC Victoria 49% | From December 2023 | December 2023 financial close (A$400m debt, A$245m SEC equity) | December 2025 — already operating |
| Moorabool Battery (Moorabool) | Victoria | 300 / 1,200 | HMC Capital | Same as developer | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
| Byellee BESS (Byellee) | Not stated (sources conflict) | 300 / 1,160 | Eku Energy | Same as developer | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
State attribution for the Byellee BESS is left open: secondary sources conflict (one lists it in Victoria; the official state capacity totals reconcile only with Queensland). State totals quoted in this article are the figures published in the official tender announcement and are unaffected.
Ampyr Energy was the tender's largest winner with four projects totalling 1,425 MW / 5,163 MWh across Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, followed by Edify Energy (500 MW / 2 GWh, both at Majors Creek) and Potentia Energy (480 MW / 1,928 MWh across three projects in South Australia and New South Wales). Ampyr’s Bulabul stage 2 won the previous CIS battery tender in September 2025.
One result stands out: Equis's Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub Side B is already operating, having reached commercial operations in December 2025 — the 15-winner list therefore includes one asset that was energised before it won its contract, evidence that CIS underwriting is valuable enough to be sought retrospectively for operating capacity. The remaining 14 projects are at varying stages between award and financial close, which is why construction, financing and grid-connection dates are largely still to be published; this page will be updated as they are.
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 the table reflects what is disclosed today; it will be tracked as the 15 projects move toward financial close and construction.
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. The demand signal behind all of this is structural: AEMO's 2026 Integrated System Plan doubled its 2030 grid-scale battery outlook to 33 GW.
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.
Corrections made in this update: New South Wales total corrected to 830 MW / 2,720 MWh (previously 2,270 MWh — the published state figures reconcile only with 2,720). The Byellee BESS state attribution is left open in the table because secondary sources conflict. The Ascera–Federation Asset Management relationship rests on a single outlet (RenewEconomy) and is marked “reported”. Ampyr’s Bulabul ownership per Energy-Storage.news. Construction/financing/COD dates are shown as disclosed; “not yet disclosed” reflects post-award status at the time of writing, September 2026.