Energy generator and retailer Alinta Energy has received the first shipment of battery units for its 250MW, 4-hour Reeves Plains Battery project in South Australia, with 48 of a planned 194 units arriving on site over the past week.
The delivery marks the transition into the next phase of construction on the project, located approximately 60km north of Adelaide.
A total of 194 battery units and 89 inverters will be delivered to the site over the coming months. The battery units are supplied by Chinese manufacturer CATL, and the inverters by Power Electronics.
Kevin Arnold, executive general manager at GenusPlus Group, the project’s principal contractor, said the equipment’s arrival reflected months of planning and coordination across the project team.
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“Seeing the first battery units and inverters arrive on site is an exciting moment for everyone involved in the project,” Arnold said.
“It’s a clear sign of the progress being made and the momentum building across the site.”
Ken Woolley, executive director of generation and development at Alinta Energy, said the milestone brings the project a step closer to delivering a 250MW battery with up to four hours of storage for South Australia.
“The sheer scale of the project is impressive,” Woolley said.
“Once installed, the battery and inverter units will span an area that’s three times the size of the Adelaide Oval.”
Alinta said it also plans to open the project’s Community Fund in October, giving local groups and organisations access to support for community initiatives.
Reeves Plains sits adjacent to a proposed 300MW gas-fired power station, forming part of the wider Reeves Plains Energy Hub, which Alinta has said will provide backup capacity as coal-fired generation retires from South Australia’s grid.
Alinta reached final investment decision on Stage 1 of Reeves Plains in July 2025, before commencing main construction works in April 2026. The project is designed with a 20-year operational lifespan and is expected to be operational by 2028.
South Australia’s largest operating battery storage system is currently Neoen’s 238.5MW/477MWh Blyth BESS. Stage 1 of Reeves Plains, at 250MW/1,000MWh, would already exceed that capacity once complete. A second stage remains in feasibility assessment, which would add a further 250MW/1,000MWh, bringing the combined facility to 500MW/2,000MWh, making it the largest battery storage project in South Australia and one of the largest in the country.
Reeves Plains adds firming capacity to a market already testing its battery fleet
The delivery milestone lands as South Australia’s existing battery fleet is already being tested by extreme price volatility on the National Electricity Market (NEM).
South Australia’s SA1 trading region hit the NEM’s AU$20,300/MWh (US$14,210/MWh) price cap twice in one evening on 21 June, with battery storage systems capturing an estimated AU$324,000 in fleet revenue across the event, led by Epic Energy’s Mannum BESS with AU$151,740 and AGL’s Torrens Island BESS with AU$107,230.
Not every battery captured that value. Sahand Karimi, chief executive of battery optimisation platform OptiGrid, told ESN Premium that state of charge at the start of the price cap event was a major driver of which batteries profited and which missed out, with some assets having already discharged heavily earlier in the evening and left with little energy when the highest-value intervals arrived.
“We are still at the start of learning how large battery fleets behave in these conditions,” Karimi said.
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