Akaysha Energy’s 415 MW Orana BESS reaches full output in Australia

Akaysha Energy’s 415 MW / 1,660 MWh Orana battery energy storage system has reached full output and begun dispatching in Australia’s National Electricity Market, the company said.

The four-hour duration facility is located near Wellington in New South Wales, within the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone and adjacent to TransGrid’s 330 kV zone substation.

The project’s revenue structure splits 200 MW under a 12-year virtual tolling agreement with EnergyAustralia – a synthetic arrangement under which EnergyAustralia holds financial exposure to dispatch decisions while Akaysha retains market registration and physical operational control – with the remaining 215 MW co-optimizing across energy and frequency control ancillary services in the NEM.

Akaysha Energy is owned by BlackRock and operates a portfolio of large-scale battery projects in Australia, with international development exposure through its parent.

The Orana virtual tolling structure – a contracted anchor on roughly half the asset’s capacity with the remainder exposed to merchant markets – is becoming a template for large-scale BESS finance in Australia. Akaysha is now applying the same development model internationally, with a 500 MW 2 GWh energy storage project in Germany announced earlier this year.