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One of Australia's largest batteries is now powering the grid, supported in part by an innovative agreement with EnergyAustralia.
Akaysha Energy's Orana battery energy storage system (BESS) reached commercial operation on 26 June 2026. Located in New South Wales (NSW), two kilometres north-east of Wellington within the Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), the 415 MW / 1,660 MWh Orana BESS is one of the largest storage assets in the National Electricity Market (NEM).
As coal-fired generation retires, flexible storage is becoming essential to grid stability. Batteries store energy when supply is high and release it quickly when demand spikes, helping to smooth out the peaks and troughs that come with a grid increasingly dependent on weather-driven generation. They also help capture renewable energy that would otherwise go to waste when solar and wind are generating more than the grid can immediately use.
Central to the Orana story is a financing structure called a virtual tolling agreement. Under the 12-year agreement, EnergyAustralia doesn't own or operate the battery. Instead, we hold a financial contract tied to 200 MW of its capacity, which we use to manage our exposure to wholesale price volatility, particularly during high-demand periods. Akaysha owns and operates the physical asset.
Agreements like this are also part of what makes projects like Orana viable. By providing revenue certainty to developers, they help get batteries financed and built – which means more storage in the market sooner, and a more stable grid as coal continues to retire.
"Our virtual tolling agreement with Akaysha gives us access to a large-scale battery's firming capability and the ability to soak up renewable energy that would otherwise be wasted, without owning or operating the asset ourselves," said Daniel Nugent, Trading and Transition Executive at EnergyAustralia.
"It's a model that gets more storage into the market sooner. Agreements like this one sit alongside the batteries we're building ourselves at Wooreen, Hallett and Mt Piper – different approaches, but all pointed at the same thing: a more flexible, more resilient grid," Nugent added.
"The Virtual Tolling Agreement with EnergyAustralia is an innovative offtake structure that was designed to work alongside the NSW Long-Term Energy Service Agreement and was instrumental in supporting the project's path to final investment decision. The arrangement enables Akaysha to continue operating and optimising the physical asset while leveraging our in-house trading team to respond to market conditions and maximise value across our 4GWh portfolio. As our portfolio continues to grow, agreements like this demonstrate the important role flexible commercial structures can play in accelerating investment in large-scale energy storage," said Tony Fullelove, Managing Director of Development and Delivery at Akaysha Energy.
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