Akaysha Energy has commenced commercial operations at its Orana battery energy storage system (BESS) in New South Wales.
Located near Wellington within the state’s Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), the Orana BESS features a 415-megawatt capacity capable of delivering up to four hours, or 1,660 megawatt-hours, of continuous energy storage. The REZ where it resides is earmarked to host an influx of 3,000 megawatts of new wind and solar generation.
Orana boosts the developer’s total operational storage capacity past the four-gigawatt-hour threshold.
The project’s launch brings an innovative financial structure to the National Electricity Market (NEM) through a 12-year virtual tolling agreement (VTA) secured with retailer EnergyAustralia for 200 megawatts of the battery’s capacity.
Under the VTA, EnergyAustralia can financially “charge” and “discharge” its allocated share based on pre-agreed bidding parameters.
This gives the retailer full access to rapid dispatch and market arbitrage without the burden of physically owning or operating the hardware.
“The Orana BESS is set to play a major role in supporting firming capacity and grid reliability, allowing more renewable energy to be integrated into the NSW electricity system,” said Akaysha Energy Managing Director of Development and Delivery, Tony Fullelove.
EnergyAustralia Trading & Transition Executive, Daniel Nugent, added that the VTA model absorbs clean energy that would otherwise go to waste.
“As part of a portfolio mix, it’s a model that helps get batteries financed and built and gets more storage into the market sooner,” Nugent said.
The Orana BESS secured a long-term energy service agreement (LTESA) under the New South Wales Roadmap Tender Round 2 in late 2023, which doubled as a pilot for the federal government’s Capacity Investment Scheme.
This framework cushions investors by guaranteeing minimum cash flows, driving earlier investments into utility-scale storage.