Australia has emerged as the world’s third-largest utility-scale battery energy storage market, with 4.3GW of large-scale battery storage systems reaching financial close in 2025.

The Australian government has announced the results of Capacity Investment Scheme Tenders 5 and 6 for WA, awarding contracts to 10 projects.

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

Sam Markham of Fluence Australia believes grid-forming BESS are essential to deliver a safe, secure and affordable decarbonised power system.

Battery energy storage projects have emerged as the dominant force in Australia’s energy investment landscape, accounting for 46% of the nation’s 64GW development pipeline, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) latest quarterly report.

Tesla has announced that by the end of 2026, it expects to have around 4.5GW of grid-forming battery storage operating across Australia.

The Australian government has opened two CIS tenders in Western Australia, targeting 2.4GWh of energy storage and 1.6GW of renewables.

Australia’s AusEnergy Services (ASL), formerly AEMO Services, has released the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) Tender 6 parameters, seeking an initial 2,400MWh of dispatchable capacity in Western Australia.

Construction has officially started on the 100MW/400MWh 4-hour duration Merredin battery energy storage system (BESS) in Western Australia.

On 21 July, standalone BESS and solar-plus-storage each achieved new generation records in Western Australia’s SWIS.