First stage of Australia’s second-biggest battery starts commercial operations in the Sunshine State

The first stage of one of the biggest batteries under development in Australia has started commercial operations, on track to becoming a 780 megawatt, more than 3 gigawatt-hour behemoth that will support the power needs of nearly 190,000 Queensland households during evening peaks.

Quinbrook said on Tuesday morning that the 260 megawatt (MW), 619 megawatt-hour (MWh) stage one of the Supernode battery at the South Pine substation in Brisbane is now operating at full output, with commercial tolling under the management of Origin Energy.

The milestone for Supernode follows closely on last month’s start of commercial operations for Origin’s 460 MW/1770 MWh stage 1 Eraring battery, in the shadow of the coal plant of the same name, in New South Wales.

The two batteries are vying for the title of the biggest in the National Electricity Market – although, for the moment, Eraring stage 1 holds the honours.

Quinbrook says construction is ongoing for Stages 2 and 3 of Supernode, which are on track to be completed in 2026 and 2027, respectively, taking the Brisbane battery’s capacity to 780 MW / 3,074 MWh, compared to 700 MW and 3,170 MWh for Eraring, when complete.

Quinbrook is also working on plans for a Stage 4 expansion of Supernode, currently in pre-construction, which is expected to host the first deployment of Quinbrook’s EnerQB long-duration energy storage solution, developed in partnership with CATL.

Origin, which is developing the Eraring battery itself, has contracted for 100% of capacity across Supernode Stages 1 and 2 under 12-year tolling agreements.

In a statement on Tuesday, Origin’s general manager of energy supply and operations, Greg Jarvis, said its investments in Supernode underscore the critical role it sees battery storage playing in supporting the energy transition.

“With Supernode Stage 2, along with our Eraring 2 and Mortlake batteries, coming online in the coming months, Origin’s battery storage portfolio will grow to 1.7 GW across owned and tolled large scale projects,” Jarvis said.

Quinbrook says Origin’s collaboration and offtake commitment on Supernode has been instrumental in delivering the “globally significant” project.

“Supernode is a case study in how technically advanced and large-scale storage can be conceived, located and delivered in Australia to support the progressive transition of our power systems,” Quinbrook senior director James Allan said on Tuesday.

“It is not just about scale, but about placing storage at the right location in the network and delivering long term infrastructure assets that are purpose-built to support the next phase of power system evolution.”

Supernode is being delivered in partnership with Quinbrook’s own specialist project execution team at Private Energy Partners, who have supported the design, procurement and construction and will oversee longer term asset management.

Quinbrook’s investment for Stages 1, 2 and 3 is expected to exceed $1.4 billion, with priority given to sourcing local labour, services and equipment from Brisbane and South-East Queensland.

The financing of Supernode Stages 1 and 2 is believed to represent the largest debt financing for a standalone BESS project in Australia to date.

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