Origin Energy is moving forward with a new expansion of its Eraring Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) complex in New South Wales, which would make the site the largest battery complex in the southern hemisphere .
The new development is Eraring BESS North , a new stage that the company presented for evaluation and which contemplates 500 MW of power and eight hours of duration , equivalent to about 4000 MWh of storage under the configuration announced by Origin.
With this addition, the entire complex would reach approximately 1200 MW of power and 8600 MWh of capacity , according to the company's projections.
The project has already entered the corresponding evaluation processes. The documentation submitted to the Australian federal government indicates a technically feasible capacity of approximately 4942 MWh for BESS North, while Origin is marketing the development as a 500 MW, eight-hour battery.
The new facility is still subject to regulatory and environmental approvals. According to project documentation, construction could begin in 2028 , would last approximately two and a half years, and commercial operation is projected to begin in early to mid-2031 .
Eraring scales up to 8.6 GWh
BESS North would be incorporated into a complex that Origin has been developing in stages.
The first one, Eraring Battery 1 , has 460 MW / 1770 MWh and is already in commercial operation.
At the same time, the company is building Eraring Battery 2 , which will add another 240 MW and is scheduled to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2027.
The third stage, now submitted for evaluation, would complete the scheme with another 500 MW and eight hours of duration.
Thus, once the three phases are developed, Origin projects that Eraring will concentrate around 1.2 GW / 8.6 GWh of storage .
The scale would position the site as the largest BESS complex in the southern hemisphere , although achieving that scale will depend on the approval and subsequent construction of the new expansion.
From a coal-fired power plant to a large storage hub
The scale of the project is not the only relevant element. The batteries are being developed at the site of Eraring Power Station , Origin's coal-fired power plant located next to Lake Macquarie.
The strategy allows for leveraging existing electrical infrastructure in one of New South Wales' most important energy hubs and adding flexible capacity as Australia incorporates larger volumes of renewable generation.
In this context, BESS North is also introducing a change of scale in terms of duration. With eight hours of storage , the new stage is designed to shift large volumes of electricity between different times of day and respond for considerably longer periods than the first large-scale batteries deployed in the Australian market.
Before it can materialize, the project must complete both the federal environmental assessment and the process corresponding to developments of state importance in New South Wales.
If it passes these stages and Origin moves forward with the investment, the new battery will add around 4 GWh of commercial capacity to the site and bring the Eraring complex to 8.6 GWh , consolidating one of the largest-scale storage projects currently planned in Australia.