Australia Battery Operations: Why did Torrens Island BESS miss out on revenues in February 2025?

In February 2025, battery energy storage systems in South Australia led earnings across the NEM from high energy trading revenues in several periods of extreme prices. However, differences in battery operations meant South Australian batteries earned different levels of revenue, even though they all had similar earning opportunities. Torrens Island BESS earned an annualised $165k/MW/year in February 2025, above the NEM average. But this was just over half of the earnings of Adelaide Desalination Plant BESS, at $312k/MW/year. These differences were due to different battery bidding strategies, likely due to consideration of other generators in a larger portfolio.