South Australia launches tender for 700 MW dispatchable clean capacity

• South Australia opened a tender to contract 700 MW of long-duration, dispatchable capacity—likely batteries and other storage—to strengthen grid resilience and reliability

South Australia has kicked off a tender to award 700 MW of long-duration, dispatchable capacity, targeting technologies that can firm the state’s large renewable fleet and keep prices stable during evening peaks and heatwaves. The program is designed to secure multi-hour flexibility—most prominently grid-scale batteries, but potentially other long-duration options—to shift abundant daytime solar into night-time demand and deliver fast frequency and voltage support.

The move reflects how SA’s grid has evolved. With world-leading shares of wind and rooftop solar, system needs have pivoted from new generation toward flexibility, inertia substitutes, and reserves that respond in seconds. A tendered contract-for-capacity model gives financiers revenue certainty over a defined term, lowering the cost of capital and accelerating construction timelines for projects that meet strict performance criteria.

What’s likely to win? Mature, bankable battery energy storage systems (BESS) with two to four hours of duration, grid-forming inverters, and plant controllers capable of synthetic inertia, frequency-watt response, and rapid curtailment. Sites located at strong nodes—substations already constrained at dusk—will score highly on deliverability and system benefit. Proposals with robust community plans (traffic and noise controls, landscaped buffers, emergency response coordination with fire services) and clear decommissioning provisions typically fare best in South Australian approvals.

For consumers, contracted flexibility should dampen price spikes during tight evening hours and reduce reliance on gas peakers. For generators, it lowers curtailment of midday solar and improves overall renewable capture rates. The tender also complements ongoing transmission upgrades and virtual power plant initiatives that aggregate distributed batteries across homes and businesses.

Next steps: prequalified bidders will finalize designs, interconnection studies, and equipment reservations for long-lead transformers and protection gear—the items that often set schedules. With award, projects can proceed to notice-to-proceed and staged energisation, delivering capacity in time for hotter summers and growing electrification.

Bottom line: South Australia is doubling down on the resource it now values most—fast, controllable clean capacity that stabilizes a renewables-heavy system.