King & Wood Mallesons (“KWM”) is delighted to have advised AEMO Services Limited (“ASL”) on the second tender for Long-Term Energy Service Agreements (“LTESAs”) under the NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap. This tender focused on firming infrastructure and demand response, both of which are critical for NSW energy security.
ASL together with the Federal and state governments announced the award of contracts under Tender Round 2 for 1,075MW of dispatchable capacity. This exceeds the 380MW initially sought from the market – later expanded to 930MW, after a commitment from the Federal government to support up to an additional 550MW of capacity under the Capacity Investment Scheme (“CIS”).
ASL has noted that:
- the successful projects would create or otherwise involve nearly 400 jobs across their lifetime.
- the successful projects represented more than $1.8bn in total investment in NSW’s renewable energy infrastructure.
- the total capacity awarded is equivalent to over 8% of the total 2023 NSW summer peak demand.
The successful Projects in Tender Round 2 are as follows:
Tender Round 2 built on the innovative contractual arrangements offered in Tender Round 1, which entitled successful bidders to access minimum cashflows over the term of their project. KWM assisted in the tender process and tailoring the agreements to apply to firming infrastructure and demand response services.
The KWM team was led by Partner Vishal Ahuja, and was supported by Jennifer Bell, Anthony Di Gregorio, Aaron Brooks, Josh Everett, Annelise Nguyen and Shaun Nolan.
Commenting on the matter, Vishal said “It has been great working with the ASL team on this second tender round which was required in response to reliability gaps in NSW. It involved new approaches to facilitating different technology solutions and is a further evolution of the work KWM has done on major battery projects required to support the energy transition, including the Victorian Big Battery, Big Canberra Battery, Waratah Super Battery and the Victorian Renewable Development Plan.”
