en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and grid operator Transgrid have officially approved RWE's 50MW/400MWh Limondale battery energy storage system for full-capacity operation. Located near Balranald in southern New South Wales, the project is co-located with the existing 249MW Limondale solar farm and is Australia's first battery energy storage system with a continuous discharge duration of eight hours.
The storage system consists of 144 Tesla battery units with a discharge duration exceeding eight hours, making it the longest continuously discharging battery energy storage system in Australia. Following commissioning, the project passed grid compliance and performance tests, demonstrating its ability to operate safely at maximum capacity.
With approval, the Limondale battery energy storage system can store surplus renewable energy and release it during peak demand periods, thereby enhancing grid stability and reducing reliance on peaking gas-fired power plants during prolonged imbalances between electricity supply and demand. The project's eight-hour duration was designed in response to the New South Wales government's Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap. This storage system is also the first to secure a Long-Duration Energy Storage Long-Term Energy Service Agreement (LDES LTESA) from AEMO Services. RWE obtained this government contract in 2023, with a 14-year term aimed at encouraging the development of long-duration storage systems to support increased renewable energy generation. Approximately one year after securing the contract, RWE made a final investment decision on the Limondale battery energy storage system.
Sopna Sury, CEO of RWE Renewables for Europe and Australia, stated that this project will transform Australia's battery storage market landscape, marking a significant milestone in the development of long-duration storage while enhancing the reliability and resilience of the national energy system.
RWE successfully registered the Limondale battery energy storage system with AEMO in September 2025, transitioning the project from the construction phase to the "hold point testing" phase. Registration brought the project into AEMO's market management system, the core IT system managing wholesale operations in the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM). The project connects to an adjacent 33kV transmission line, originally built to serve the Limondale solar farm (constructed with 872,000 photovoltaic modules), which has been operational since 2021.
The eight-hour continuous discharge capability enables the Limondale battery energy storage system to address longer-duration electricity supply-demand imbalances than short-duration storage systems (typically used for frequency control and peak shaving), providing backup power when renewable generation is insufficient or electricity demand is high. Despite initial doubts about lithium-ion batteries' ability to support eight-hour storage, many long-duration storage projects using lithium-ion batteries are under development, benefiting from breakthroughs such as declining system costs, increased power density, and modular design. Keith Lovegrove, Managing Director of consulting firm ITP Thermal, recently cautioned that Australia's storage industry risks over-relying on this technology and should diversify long-duration storage technologies, particularly highlighting the potential of solar thermal power, pumped hydro storage, and hydrogen storage in ensuring grid stability after the retirement of coal-fired power plants.
Australian renewable energy and infrastructure contractor Beon Energy Solutions provided balance-of-plant (BOP) equipment for this project, and RWE collaborated with Transgrid on project construction. Currently, RWE operates a total installed capacity of 1.7GW of battery energy storage systems globally, with approximately 2.5GW under construction.
While RWE's Limondale battery energy storage system is Australia's first eight-hour storage system approved for full operation, other long-duration storage battery projects are also advancing. For example, Australian renewable energy developer Edify Energy (acquired by global investment group La Caisse) received federal government approval in September 2025 to build a large-scale solar-plus-storage project in Victoria, including a 300MW solar farm and a 300MW/2400MWh battery energy storage system.
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