ACEN advances construction of BESS facility in Australia

February 27, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Ayala-led ACEN Corp. is advancing the construction of its large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) facility in New South Wales, Australia.

ACEN, through ACEN Australia, has tapped global energy storage specialist Energy Vault to lead the construction of the 400-megawatt-hour BESS project located at the site of the group’s New England Solar.

ACEN Australia head of construction and engineering Tim Greenaway, along with Energy Vault chairman and CEO Robert Piconi, recently conducted a site inspection at the battery facility.

“Our geotechnical and design work is almost complete, and work to install the electrical infrastructure to connect the battery is well underway,” Greenaway said.

“We expect the civil and base electrical work for the BESS to begin over the next month or two, ready for the delivery of the battery modules in the second half of the year,” Greenaway added.

The New England BESS is the first of two planned systems being built by Energy Vault that is expected to provide energy on demand to customers in both New South Wales and Queensland in Australia.

“There’s a lot of attention worldwide on the battery storage market in Australia, and so we’re very happy to be making a positive contribution here on such an important project,” Energy Vault vice president of sales Lucas Sadler said.

Sadler said the New England BESS is Energy Vault’s first project to begin construction in Australia.

Earlier, ACEN Australia said the project is set to be operational by 2026.

Once completed, the New England BESS is poised to be one of Australia’s largest co-located solar and battery storage facilities that provide stored energy to the grid.

A BESS is a type of technology that stores electricity from power plants or the power grid for various applications such as grid stability, energy efficiency and renewable energy integration.