Following a competitive tender process, Akaysha Energy has been appointed by the Energy Corporation of NSW (EnergyCo NSW) to develop the Waratah Super Battery—the largest committed battery project in the southern hemisphere and most powerful battery in the world.
This comes after a fund managed by BlackRock Alternatives’ Climate Infrastructure team acquired Akaysha Energy, with an intent to commit over $1 billion of capital to help Akaysha develop advanced battery storage assets in Australia.
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Australia’s largest network battery will be built at the site of the former coal-fired Lake Munmorah Power Station. Located ~100km north of Sydney and approximately 25km south of the retiring Eraring coal-fired power station, the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) will reside in a 138,000 square metre site and serve as a critical network area within Australia’s largest load centre.
The NSW Government is delivering the Waratah Super Battery project as part of its response to the anticipated early closure of the Eraring Power Station in August 2025. The Eraring Power Station currently represents ~25% of NSW’s thermal generating capacity, with its closure requiring significant near-term mitigation strategies to preserve the overall system integrity of the grid.
As the selected Service Provider, Akaysha will be responsible for the construction of a BESS that is capable of providing a guaranteed continuous active power capacity of at least 700MW and a guaranteed useable energy storage capacity of at least 1400MWh. By operating as part of a System Integrity Protection Scheme (SIPS) to increase the transmission capacity of the existing network, the BESS will allow more power to flow from existing generators to meet the needs of the families and businesses of NSW.
The physical size of the of BESS is anticipated to be 850MW/1680MWh, allowing Akaysha to trade the additional capacity in the electricity market to access additional revenue streams. Some capacity will also be released at off-peak times of the day for trading. These features will place further downward pressure on the cost to electricity users in NSW.
The winning consortium led by Akaysha Energy consisted of key project partners, US-based Powin LLC and Consolidated Power Projects Australia Pty Ltd (CPP). Powin will provide the battery hardware and software using the Centipede BESS platform and Stack OS control system. Powin’s wholly owned subsidiary, EKS Energy, will provide their best-in-class power conversion systems. CPP has been selected as the Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) company responsible for all site works, BESS installation, and all electrical works including high voltage connection.
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Akaysha Energy managing director Nick Carter said, “We are honoured to be appointed to develop the Waratah Super Battery—one of the largest committed BESS projects in the world. This project will be the first in a wave of gigawatt class BESS projects across the National Electricity Market (NEM) and will play a critical role in the energy transition by unlocking many gigawatts of new renewable capacity. With the collective support of BlackRock, CPP and Powin, we look forward to working with EnergyCo and Transgrid to develop the battery storage assets needed to deliver greater reliability and resilience to the NSW power grid.”
