Origin's Eraring battery enters commercial operation with 460 MW first stage
Origin Energy's first stage of the Eraring battery energy storage system has completed commissioning and is now trading electricity on the National Electricity Market, the company said. The opening stage is rated at 460 MW and 1,770 MWh, according to pv magazine.
The project sits on the New South Wales Central Coast, co-located with Origin's 2,880 MW Eraring coal-fired power station. The plant currently supplies about 18% of the state's electricity and is scheduled to retire in August 2027, with closure possibly pushed to 2029.
When all four stages are complete, the battery will reach 700 MW and 3,160 MWh, delivering an average duration of 4.5 hours, according to pv magazine.
Origin has committed AUD 80 million (USD 53.87 million) to build the fourth stage, pv magazine reported. Wärtsilä will supply the battery equipment for stage four, with Enerven handling design and construction. Origin said stage four is expected to come online in the first quarter of the 2027 calendar year, and that the remaining stages are on schedule.
Origin is targeting up to 5 GW of renewables and energy storage by 2030.
The Eraring site illustrates a pattern across Australia's grid, where developers are siting large batteries at retiring coal plants to reuse existing transmission connections. Stage one's entry into commercial operation gives Origin a 460 MW dispatchable asset already participating in NEM trading, ahead of the coal station's scheduled August 2027 closure date. The full 700 MW build, once commissioned, would represent a near one-to-one swap in nameplate terms for a fraction of the Eraring coal plant's 2,880 MW output, though over a 4.5-hour duration window rather than baseload.
Source: pv-magazine.com (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink