NSW’s 3rd Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap Tender Concludes

• AEMO Services has completed the 3^rd tender round under NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap
• It has selected 750 MW of renewable energy generation projects and 524 MW/4,192 MWh of LDS capacity
• The winning projects comprise a solar and wind energy project each, along with 2 lithium-ion BESS and an A-CAES system

The New South Wales (NSW) has selected 3 renewable energy projects with a combined 750 MW capacity, including a 350 MW solar power plant, for the 3^rd tender round concluded under the state's Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap.

Apart from the 350 MW Culcairn Solar Farm of NEOEN Australia, Squadron Energy's 400 MW Uungula Wind Farm is the other winner. Both these projects have secured an average fixed price for awarded generation Long Term Energy Service Agreement (LTESA) of less than AUD 55 ($37)/MWh for a period of 20 years.

The remaining projects selected are all storage facilities. Those are as under:

• Lightsource bp's 49 MW/392 MWh Goulburn River Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)
• Ark Energy Corporation's 275 MW/2,200 MWh Richmond Valley BESS, and
• Hydrostor Australia Holdings' 200 MW/1,600 MWh Silver City Energy Storage Centre with advanced-compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) system.

Under this tender round, the AEMO Services had offered 950 MW for wind and solar energy generation along with 550 MW of long duration storage (LDS). However, the agency received a total of 3.1 GW of renewable energy bids in response, along with 1.6 GW for LDS (see Australian RE & Storage Tender Oversubscribed).

All of the winning projects are expected to become operational before calendar year 2028.

AEMO Services' Executive General Manager Paul Verschuer said, "From the strength of the response to the first year of our tender process, it's clear that the insurance provided by the LTESA contract is working to address a key market risk that might otherwise delay or discourage investors from participating in the transition."

With this round, AEMO has now contracted a total of 2.14 GW generation and 574 MW/4,592 MWh LDS and 1,075 MW/2,980 MWh firming capacity in all 3 LTESA tender rounds so far, out of 12 GW renewable energy and 2 GW LDS capacity it seeks to add by 2030 under the roadmap.

The 4^th round was launched by AEMO in November 2023 to procure 3,000 GWh/year of renewable energy generation projects (see NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap's 4^th Tender Round).