Q2 2026 delivered 1,975 MW and 5,560 MWh of new BESS capacity across seven projects in Australia’s NEM. That makes it the second-largest quarter on record, just behind Q4 2025's 2.2 GW. The NEM's live fleet now stands at 7,682 MW and 17,675 MWh across 52 assets, with an average duration of 2.3 hours.

The quarter also reshuffled the state leaderboard. New South Wales took 1,265 MW of the new capacity, 64% of the quarterly total, and overtook Queensland as the state with the most operational BESS.

This article provides an update on battery energy storage deployment in the NEM, highlighting newly commissioned assets, trends in system size and duration, and what this means for our forecast through to the end of 2029.

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Find last quarter's report here.

Key takeaways

• Q2 2026 added 1,975 MW and 5,560 MWh across seven projects, bringing the NEM's live BESS fleet to 7,682 MW and 17,675 MWh. Average fleet duration rose from 2.1 to 2.3 hours.
• New South Wales overtook Queensland as the leading BESS state, reaching 2,570 MW against Queensland's 2,365 MW. Three of the seven new projects landed in NSW.
• Waratah Super Battery reached 700 MW of its 850 MW target, making it the NEM's largest battery by power capacity.
• Liddell and Orana brought 915 MW of LTESA-backed capacity online in a single quarter.
• Three owners commissioned their first NEM battery: CleanCo (Swanbank), Revera Energy (Bungama), and Pacific Blue (Clements Gap).

What BESS projects came online in Q2 2026?

The seven new projects spread across NSW (three), Queensland (two), and South Australia (two). The additions skewed large and long. Four projects exceed 250 MW. Orana and Supernode Stage 2 (250 MW / 1,000 MWh) added 2,660 MWh of four-hour storage between them, twice the fleet median duration. As a result, average fleet duration jumped from 2.1 to 2.3 hours in a single quarter.