Federal-backed Victoria battery gets energised after four year odyssey

The federal-backed Mornington battery is now commissioning, completing a plan that began in 2021 when it was Victoria’s biggest storage project. 

The 240 megawatt (MW), two hour project was one of 16 battery projects to win an underwriting agreement in the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) recent, and biggest, storage auction for federal funding. 

It was also the furthest ahead of the 16, and has been energised and starting commissioning not long after.  The battery is expected to be operational in mid 2026.

“With construction complete and commissioning underway, just a few final touches before it powers approximately 40,000 homes and strengthens Australia’s renewable energy grid,” said Brendan Moretto on LinkedIn this week, cofounder of Acle Services which is handling the engineering and construction. 

The battery itself has gone through a few hands to get this far.

It was first proposed for a spot just north of the Port of Hastings by small renewable and battery storage developer Maoneng in 2021 and was expected to be running by 2023. 

The idea was to act as a buffer for the local network when seasonal tourism on the Mornington Peninsula causes electricity  demand to surge over summer.  

At the time it would have been the state’s biggest battery in terms of duration, beating even surpassing Neoen’s 300MW/450MWh Victorian Big Battery.

GMR Energy took over Maoneng in 2022, which was itself bought in 2024 by its financial backer Gaw Capital Partners and BW ESS. They put the assets into a joint venture called Valent Energy, which is chaired by former CEFC boss and one time political candidate Oliver Yates.

Valent has been contacted for comment.