Australia’s framework governing the energy obligations of large data centres advanced on multiple fronts last week.

AMPYR Australia has received a 5.3.4 letter from AEMO for the 270MW Northern Battery near Port Augusta in South Australia.

Grid-forming BESS have not yet been confirmed to meet the highest tier of system strength requirements in Australia’s NEM, according to AEMO.

NEM-wide battery price spreads fell 85% in a single year to average AU$51/MWh (US$35/MWh) in Q2 2026, according to AEMO.

Australia’s NEM connected 9.1GW of new generation and energy storage to full output in FY26, more than double the result achieved in FY25.

AEMO has set out a storage requirement of almost 50GW in its latest 2026 Integrated System Plan (ISP), split between 35GW of short and medium-duration battery storage for daily firming and 5GW of long-duration energy storage (LDES) for seasonal reliability.

Ark Energy has received approval from AEMO and Transgrid to connect its 3,148MWh Richmond Valley solar-plus-storage site to the NEM.

RWE has received official sign-off from the AEMO and Transgrid to operate Australia’s first 8-hour BESS at full capacity.

BESS in Australia’s NEM more than tripled their daytime-to-evening energy shifting in the first quarter of 2026, according to AEMO.

Around 74% of battery storage projects in Australia’s NEM pipeline are confirmed to be equipped with grid-forming inverters, says AEMO.