Battery availability in the NEM is often seen as a technical measure, but in practice it more often reflects how operators trade. Across the NEM, batteries rarely offer their full capacity every interval. Operators adjust their availability constantly, responding to price signals, charge levels, and network constraints.
These choices shape the market. They decide who captures volatility, who holds capacity back, and how each battery manages risk. Understanding availability isn’t just about operational reliability, it’s about uncovering the commercial logic behind each battery’s strategy.
Executive summary:
- Availability refers to the capacity an asset has available to participate in each market at each interval.
- Most adjustments driven by state of charge, commercial strategy and technical limitations.
- Median NEM-wide availability is 73% after accounting for state of charge reductions, but this varies significantly on an asset by asset basis.
- Assets have seen up to a 47% reduction in potential revenues from low availability since September 2024.
Please message the author of this report at marcus@modoenergy.com with any questions and comments.
Availability can reduce potential revenues by as much as 47%
Low availability doesn’t always translate to lower revenues. Operators may deliberately reduce availability for strategic or operational reasons. However, the link between low availability and periods of high prices is a much stronger indicator of potential revenue loss.
To measure this relationship, we calculate an using AEMO’s market availability and state of charge data. This metric looks at two indicators:
