In June 2025, extreme energy prices led battery energy storage revenues in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) to quadruple both from the previous month and the same month last year. However, performance among different assets varied due to differences in bidding strategies - and despite record earnings, there were shortfalls in the physical capabilities of the existing battery fleet. This is evidence for the opportunity for new, longer-duration batteries to capture even higher revenues.
This article analyses NEM grid-scale battery revenues in June 2025: how revenues compared to previous months, the effect of energy trading and FCAS prices on earnings, revenues by state, and asset-specific factors that led to performance deviations from the index.
Find last month’s report here.
Executive summary
- NEM-wide average battery revenues more than quadrupled in June to $403k/MW/year;
- Extreme energy prices led to exceptionally high energy trading revenues for batteries all across the NEM;
- Batteries were able to discharge into very high prices during evening peaks. But they ran out of charge after two hours, at which point peaking gas took over;
- There is an opportunity for long-duration energy storage to capture the entirety of most evening peak prices and outcompete peaking gas.
NEM battery revenues increase more than 4x in June
NEM-wide battery net revenues averaged $403k/MW/year in June, over four times higher than in May. This is the highest month for earnings in the past twelve months, exceeding the previous high in August 2024. That month saw similar conditions leading to significant pricing volatility.