IN Brief:
- The three completed physical batteries total 980MW of power and 2,790MWh of storage.
- Liddell, Orana, and Smithfield are joined by a statewide 95MW demand-response virtual power plant.
- NSW says the projects represent more than A$1.8 billion of investment and supported over 1,500 construction jobs.
The New South Wales Government has confirmed completion of all four firming projects supported through the second tender round of its Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap, bringing three grid batteries and a statewide demand-response portfolio into operation.
The physical storage assets are AGL’s 500MW/1,000MWh Liddell Battery at Muswellbrook, Akaysha Energy’s 415MW/1,660MWh Orana BESS near Wellington and Iberdrola Australia’s 65MW/130MWh Smithfield BESS in western Sydney. Enel X has also delivered 95MW of flexible demand through a virtual power plant with a minimum two-hour dispatch duration.
The three batteries provide a combined 980MW of power and 2,790MWh of energy storage. Their operating durations differ: Liddell and Smithfield are nominally two-hour systems, while Orana can deliver its rated output for up to four hours.
Those differences affect how the plants can support the electricity system. Power capacity determines how quickly a battery can inject or absorb electricity, while energy capacity determines how long that output can be maintained. A four-hour installation can continue supplying a sustained evening peak after a two-hour system operating at full output has exhausted its usable energy reserve.
Liddell is the largest of the group by power rating. AGL has built the 500MW battery at the former Liddell coal-fired power station site as the first major project within its planned Hunter Energy Hub. The battery provides 1,000MWh of storage, giving it a two-hour nominal discharge duration.
Former thermal-generation sites can be attractive locations for storage because they already have industrial land, transport access and high-capacity electrical connections. The new battery still requires its own power-conversion equipment, transformers, protection, controls and connection compliance, but the location can avoid some of the infrastructure requirements associated with an entirely new grid site.
Orana carries the largest energy capacity in the programme. Its 415MW rating is paired with 1,660MWh of storage, providing four hours at nominal maximum output. The project is located in the Central-West Orana region, where substantial renewable generation and transmission investment is under development.
Longer duration broadens the services available to the plant. Orana can still respond quickly to frequency changes and dispatch instructions, but its larger energy reservoir also allows more sustained shifting of electricity between periods of renewable production and periods of stronger demand.
Iberdrola Australia’s Smithfield BESS provides 65MW/130MWh in western Sydney. The lithium-ion project was commissioned during 2026 and can supply two hours of storage at rated output, adding controllable capacity close to a major demand centre.
The fourth project uses demand rather than stored electricity. Enel X’s 95MW virtual power plant aggregates participating customers capable of reducing electricity consumption when requested. From a system-balancing perspective, verified demand reduction can provide capacity without constructing another generating plant or battery, provided the response is available, measurable and sustainable for the required period.
The technical architecture is consequently very different. A battery depends on cells, inverters, transformers and state-of-charge management, while demand response relies on communications, controls, customer availability and aggregation. Both can reduce a supply-demand imbalance, but their constraints and failure modes are not interchangeable.
NSW says the completed projects together can provide firming equivalent to the peak electricity requirement of around 400,000 households. They represent more than A$1.8 billion of investment and supported more than 1,500 jobs during construction.
The programme has been brought forward as ageing coal-fired generation approaches retirement and renewable capacity expands. Batteries cannot reproduce every electrical characteristic of a synchronous thermal power station merely by matching its megawatt rating, but they can change active-power output rapidly, shift energy between periods and provide ancillary services through inverter controls.
Those inverter capabilities are becoming more significant as the generation fleet changes. Reactive-power control, frequency response, fault behaviour and, where specified, grid-forming functions can contribute to system stability alongside conventional charging and discharging.
The four completed projects also give NSW a deliberately mixed firming portfolio. Liddell provides very high power for two hours, Orana adds a larger four-hour energy reservoir, Smithfield places storage close to Sydney demand, and the Enel X portfolio can reduce customer consumption without requiring another large grid-connected storage site.
Actual system value will depend on dispatch rather than installed capacity alone. Batteries must maintain sufficient state of charge to respond when required, while demand-response resources depend on participating customers having flexible load available at the relevant time. Market prices, network constraints and operating agreements will influence when each resource is called.
Completion therefore moves the tender programme from construction into operating performance. Summer demand, renewable variability and network constraints will provide the next test of how the three batteries and flexible-demand portfolio behave when the NSW power system requires sustained firming rather than commissioning demonstrations.
