Commissioning has commenced on the 111MW/285MWh Templers battery energy storage system (BESS) in South Australia.
The project was recently acquired by ZEBRE, a joint venture between Taiwan’s HD Renewable Energy (HDRE) and Australian developer ZEN Energy, earlier this month. It was initially expected to begin commissioning in August 2025.
However, according to Geoff Eldridge, National Electricity Market (NEM) and energy transition observer at consultancy Global Power Energy, the project has now entered the AEMO Market Management System (MMS), signalling the start of the commissioning phase.
Construction on the Templers BESS started in June last year after it cleared the grid connection process in “record time.” At the time, ZEN Energy was pursuing it before its JV with HDRE took over the development.
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It is located near Gawler, one of the state’s oldest country towns, founded in 1839 on Ngadjuri lands, about 40km north of the state capital, Adelaide. It is close to the major wine-producing region of the Barossa Valley.
Once complete, the project is claimed to be the second-largest BESS in South Australia. The largest will be French independent power producer (IPP) Neoen Australia’s 238.5MW/477MWh Blyth BESS, which entered commissioning last month.
The IPP closed financing on Blyth in 2023, and it is located about 60km away from the company’s Goyder South Stage 1 Wind Farm. Neoen has a 70MW power purchase agreement (PPA) in place with mining company BHP, which the BESS will help it deliver. The BESS will also play into merchant opportunities in the NEM.
ZEN Energy previously secured a long-term electricity supply contract for Templers with the South Australian government and, in March 2024, brought on board US-based infrastructure investor Stonepeak in a AU$70 million (US$46 million) deal.
The BESS arm of Chinese solar PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow is serving as the system integrator and BESS provider for the Templers project.
The Templers system has become the latest BESS in South Australia to progress to the commissioning stage. Last week, Energy-Storage.news reported that Australian energy infrastructure developer Epic Energy’s 100MW/200MWh Mannum BESS had also reached this milestone on 13 May.
