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 | Ampyr Australia (bought 100% of the project in January 2025); Wambal Bila, the Wellington Aboriginal community corporation, holds a 5% equity stake in Bulabul 1 | Under way since 1 August 2025 (stage 1) | Not yet disclosed (Ampyr funded stage 1 on balance sheet) | Stage 1 energisation and commissioning from Q3 2026; full commercial operations targeted Q2 2027 |
| 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 | Edify Energy, backed by its shareholder La Caisse (CDPQ) | Major construction from Q3 2026 (notice to proceed 12 August 2026) | August 2026 financial close — part of a ~A$3.2bn portfolio package across four Edify projects, syndicate of 14 lenders | Construction completion scheduled January 2029; operations targeted 2028 |
| Majors Creek Energy Storage System (Majors Creek) | Queensland | 250 / 1,000 | Edify Energy | Edify Energy, backed by its shareholder La Caisse (CDPQ) | Major construction from Q3 2026 (notice to proceed 12 August 2026) | August 2026 financial close — part of a ~A$3.2bn portfolio package across four Edify projects, syndicate of 14 lenders | Construction completion scheduled January 2029; operations targeted 2028 |
| 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 | HMC Capital (Illuma Energy platform); the KKR partnership funds up to 90% of the project’s equity (up to A$248m within a A$603m platform commitment) | Not yet disclosed (equity committed, pre-FID) | ||
| Byellee BESS (Byellee) | Queensland | 300 / 1,160 | Eku Energy | Same as developer | Not yet disclosed (post-award) | ||
Byellee’s state is recorded as Queensland. The project appears under Victoria in one trade outlet’s table, but the federal government’s own Tender 8 project list places it in Queensland, and the published Queensland state total (2,150 MW / 8,413 MWh across seven projects) reconciles only on that basis. One capacity discrepancy remains open: the Tender 8 award lists Ganymirra and Majors Creek at 250 MW / 1,000 MWh each, while Edify’s financial close disclosure for the two projects describes a combined 300 MW / 1,200 MWh of battery alongside 360 MWp of solar. The award figures are shown here; the difference is unresolved.
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. Ampyr's Bulabul 1 tells a similar story: construction there began in August 2025, ten months before the project won its Tender 8 contract. Edify's two Majors Creek projects reached financial close in August 2026. The rest sit at varying stages between award and financial close, which is why construction, financing and grid-connection dates remain largely unpublished; this page is updated as they are disclosed.
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.
Updates made 5 October 2026: the Byellee BESS state attribution is resolved to Queensland (federal Tender 8 project list; the Queensland state total reconciles at 2,150 MW / 8,413 MWh across seven projects). Ganymirra and Majors Creek construction, financing and target dates were added, and their ownership amended, after Edify’s August 2026 financial close. Bulabul 1’s construction start and the Wambal Bila 5% equity stake were added from Ampyr’s project disclosures. Moorabool’s owner and equity funding were added from HMC Capital’s FY26 results and Energy-Storage.news. Earlier corrections: 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 Ascera–Federation Asset Management relationship rests on a single outlet (RenewEconomy) and is marked “reported”. Construction/financing/COD dates are shown as disclosed; “not yet disclosed (post-award)” means no construction, financing or commissioning date has been published for that project.