Victoria’s State Electricity Commission (SEC) is investing up to AU$43 million (US$30 million) for a stake in the 400MW/1.86GWh Baranduda Electrical Energy Reserve near Wodonga, alongside superannuation fund Aware Super and developer Birdwood.
The investment has secured the state-owned generator and retailer 50% of the battery energy storage system (BESS) project’s output through a 15-year agreement.
The Victorian government said the deal was the first public-private partnership between the state and a superannuation fund to deliver a renewable energy project in Victoria.
The battery will consist of four independent 100MW units, giving it a 4.65-hour duration, described by the state government as the longest storage duration of any battery in Victoria. It will be located next to the Wodonga Terminal Station and the Victoria-New South Wales electricity interconnector.
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Construction is expected to begin in November 2026, creating around 150 jobs, with the project scheduled to begin operating in late 2028.
Victoria’s Minister for Energy and Resources, Jaclyn Symes, said the project would support the grid during periods of peak demand.
“Labor has delivered the lowest wholesale electricity prices in the country because we invest in renewables and big batteries,” Symes said.
“The SEC is investing in the affordable energy projects Victoria needs – Jess Wilson’s One Nation Coalition want to replace the SEC with expensive gas and toxic nuclear power which take decades to build.”
The government has not disclosed the individual equity stakes held by Aware Super and Birdwood, nor the project’s total capital cost.
Victoria first fast-tracked approval for the project, then proposed at 400MW/1.8GWh with a 4.5-hour duration, through its Development Facilitation Program in February 2025, when it was being pursued by Birdwood Energy alone in the existing industrial estate on Baranduda Drive.
The programme is designed to speed up planning decisions for renewable energy and storage projects, with the government stating that battery and wind projects had previously spent as long as two years stuck in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal before approval.
SEC’s stake in Baranduda follows a pattern of minority investment in private battery storage projects
The SEC’s involvement in Baranduda extends an investment approach it has applied to other utility-scale battery projects in Victoria, typically taking a minority equity position and securing a share of output rather than fully owning and operating the asset itself.
The SEC contributed AU$245 million in equity to the 600MW/1.6GWh Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub at Plumpton, developed jointly with Singapore-based Equis Australia, which began commercial operations in December 2025 as part of a AU$1.1 billion project that also drew AU$400 million in debt financing secured by Equis.
The SEC has also moved into long-duration storage technologies beyond lithium-ion. It is partnering with Italian company Energy Dome to deploy a 20MW/200MWh compressed CO2 storage system at Hazelwood North in the Latrobe Valley, designed to discharge continuously for 10 to 12 hours.
Both projects form part of the SEC’s broader programme targeting 4.5GW of new renewable energy and storage capacity across Victoria, of which Baranduda is the latest addition.
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