The NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap has reached an important milestone, with all battery and demand response projects selected in ASL’s 2023 firming tender now operational.
The tender awarded Long-Term Energy Service Agreements (LTESAs) to Iberdrola’s Smithfield BESS, Akaysha Energy’s Orana BESS, AGL’s Liddell BESS, and three virtual power plants operated by Enel X.
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Together, the projects deliver about 1GW (3GWh) of dispatchable, on-demand firming capacity improving grid reliability as ageing coal generation exits the system and demand increases.
ASL announced the results of its first NSW competitive tender just over three years ago, and since then has finalised a further six tenders for a mix of generation, long-duration storage, and firming infrastructure.
ASL in its role as the independent Consumer Trustee is currently conducting tenders for an indicative target of 2.5GW of generation infrastructure and a further 12GWh of long-duration storage infrastructure.
A further generation tender and an additional firming infrastructure tender are expected to commence in Q4 2026 and Q1 2027 respectively.
ASL CEO Nevenka Codevelle said, “ASL’s Firming LTESA has played two important roles in this tender—first by providing revenue certainty through options to access top-up payments and second by requiring these projects to be available for at least 90% of the year, and to respond to critical Lack of Reserve events.
“Beyond the initial suite of firming projects, we’re also seeing good progress on generation and long-duration storage projects, with projects proceeding to construction and operation. NSW is also a global leader for minimum 8-hour battery storage assets.
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“To reiterate a message from our 2026 Investor Day and NSW Investment Priorities, we’re looking to support more high-value projects— those that can be delivered on time and provide a robust net financial benefit for NSW electricity consumers—and encourage them to bid competitively for the support they need to reach financial close and operation sooner.”
