Battery storage by state in Australia: AEMO July 2026
Queensland has the most reported battery storage in the NEM, both in total (146,674.1 MWh) and in service (4,331.8 MWh). Its lead rests on Publicly Announced projects; excluding that class, New South Wales leads with 35,622.2 MWh against Queensland's 22,571.4 MWh.
Queensland has the most battery storage in the National Electricity Market (NEM). AEMO’s NEM Generation Information release of 31 July 2026 lists 146,674.1 MWh of reported storage capacity in Queensland across every status, and 4,331.8 MWh in service.1 New South Wales is close behind on the total, at 139,937.2 MWh.1
Almost none of it is built yet. Of 412,965.7 MWh reported across the NEM, 12,383.7 MWh is operating.1
TL;DR
- Queensland leads on both measures: total reported capacity (146,674.1 MWh) and capacity in service (4,331.8 MWh).1
- The total ranking rests on projects AEMO classes as Publicly Announced. They make up 326,425.7 MWh, or 79.0% of the NEM total.1
- Set Publicly Announced aside and New South Wales leads, with 35,622.2 MWh against Queensland’s 22,571.4 MWh.1
- On operating capacity, Victoria (3,337.4 MWh) sits ahead of New South Wales (2,961.5 MWh).1
- No state’s largest listed battery is operating. Queensland’s Magnetite Energy Hub is the biggest, at 5,740.8 MWh.1
- Tasmania reports 4,274 MWh, all Publicly Announced, with nothing in service.1
- For individual batteries rather than state totals, see our ranking of the largest battery storage sites in Australia.
How this ranking was built
Glamdring ranks the states on one field from one AEMO release: NEM Generation Information, July 2026, dated 31 July 2026. We used the file nem-generation-information-july-2026.xlsx, sheet Generator Information.1
- Field: Agg Nameplate Storage Capacity (MWh), the reported storage capacity in megawatt-hours.1
- Inclusion: rows where Technology Type is Battery Storage.1
- Exclusion: rows with the status Withdrawn.1
- Merge: generating-unit rows that share a site name and region count as one site. After the merge, 485 sites remain across the five states.1
- Grouping: capacity summed by state and by AEMO status.1
- Operating: In Service plus Announced Withdrawal, which AEMO uses for an operating plant with a closure announced. Every other status is not yet built.1 No state reports any Announced Withdrawal battery capacity.1
AEMO records these figures. That is a registry figure, not a measured output. The status names are AEMO’s own, applied as published. Glamdring’s wider rules for sources and figures are on the methodology page.
Which state has the most battery storage?
Queensland, with 146,674.1 MWh of reported storage capacity across all statuses.1 New South Wales is second, Victoria third, South Australia fourth and Tasmania fifth.1
| Rank | State | Reported storage, all statuses (MWh) | In service (MWh) | Listed sites |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Queensland | 146,674.1 | 4,331.8 | 139 |
| 2 | New South Wales | 139,937.2 | 2,961.5 | 165 |
| 3 | Victoria | 83,361.1 | 3,337.4 | 107 |
| 4 | South Australia | 38,719.2 | 1,753 | 69 |
| 5 | Tasmania | 4,274 | 0 | 5 |
The margin at the top is narrow. Queensland leads New South Wales by 6,736.9 MWh, even though New South Wales lists 26 more sites.1 Queensland’s projects are bigger on average: 1,055.2 MWh per listed site, against 848.1 MWh in New South Wales, 779.1 MWh in Victoria and 561.1 MWh in South Australia.1
The release lists five states. Western Australia and the Northern Territory don’t appear in it, so this ranking says nothing about them.1
Which state has the most battery storage in service?
Queensland, with 4,331.8 MWh In Service.1 The operating order differs from the total: Victoria moves to second and New South Wales drops to third.1
| Rank | State | In service (MWh) | Share of the state’s reported total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Queensland | 4,331.8 | 3.0% |
| 2 | Victoria | 3,337.4 | 4.0% |
| 3 | New South Wales | 2,961.5 | 2.1% |
| 4 | South Australia | 1,753 | 4.5% |
| 5 | Tasmania | 0 | 0% |
Across the NEM, 12,383.7 MWh is in service: 3.0% of the reported total.1 South Australia has the highest operating share of its own total. New South Wales has the lowest of the four states with any operating battery capacity.1
The two rankings answer different questions. In-service capacity describes the batteries on the grid in July 2026. The total adds everything AEMO lists at every development stage.
How much capacity is operating versus announced?
Most of it is announced. Projects in AEMO’s Publicly Announced class hold 326,425.7 MWh, or 79.0% of the NEM total, while 12,383.7 MWh is operating.1
| State | In Service | In Commissioning | Committed | Committed* | Anticipated | Publicly Announced | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queensland | 4,331.8 | 1,238 | 2,996.3 | 2,400 | 11,605.3 | 124,102.7 | 146,674.1 |
| New South Wales | 2,961.5 | 2,905 | 5,869.1 | 1,832.7 | 22,053.9 | 104,315 | 139,937.2 |
| Victoria | 3,337.4 | 849.9 | 5,020.7 | 668 | 8,701.2 | 64,783.9 | 83,361.1 |
| South Australia | 1,753 | 120 | 950.7 | 932.7 | 6,012.7 | 28,950.1 | 38,719.2 |
| Tasmania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4,274 | 4,274 |
All figures are MWh. Announced Withdrawal is zero in every state, so the table leaves it out.1
Queensland’s lead depends on the Publicly Announced class. It holds 84.6% of Queensland’s reported total, against 77.7% in Victoria, 74.8% in South Australia, 74.5% in New South Wales and 100% in Tasmania.1
Take that class out and the order changes. Counting operating capacity plus In Commissioning, Committed, Committed* and Anticipated:
| Rank | State | Reported storage excluding Publicly Announced (MWh) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New South Wales | 35,622.2 |
| 2 | Queensland | 22,571.4 |
| 3 | Victoria | 18,577.2 |
| 4 | South Australia | 9,769.1 |
| 5 | Tasmania | 0 |
New South Wales leads this measure on two counts. It has the most Anticipated capacity, at 22,053.9 MWh, and the most In Commissioning, Committed and Committed* capacity combined, at 10,606.8 MWh.1
The decision changes with the question. For where storage is being proposed, use the total. For what runs on the grid now, use In Service. For capacity in AEMO’s other development classes, drop Publicly Announced and New South Wales comes first.
What is the largest battery in each state?
In every state, the largest listed battery site is not yet operating.1 Queensland’s Magnetite Energy Hub is the largest of the five, at 5,740.8 MWh.1
| State | Largest listed site | Reported storage (MWh) | AEMO status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Queensland | Magnetite Energy Hub | 5,740.8 | Publicly Announced |
| New South Wales | Great Western Battery | 4,500 | Anticipated |
| Victoria | Connewarren BESS | 4,400 | Publicly Announced |
| Tasmania | Nook BESS | 3,024 | Publicly Announced |
| South Australia | Bundey BESS and Solar Project | 3,000 | Publicly Announced |
Great Western Battery is the only state leader outside the Publicly Announced class.1 Tasmania’s Nook BESS is larger than South Australia’s biggest listed site, and it alone accounts for 70.8% of Tasmania’s reported capacity.1
This extract names the largest site by reported capacity at any status. It doesn’t name the largest operating battery in each state. The site ranking linked above ranks individual batteries.
What does reported storage capacity mean?
It is the storage capacity AEMO lists for each project, in megawatt-hours, summed across a site’s units. The release field is Agg Nameplate Storage Capacity (MWh).1
Megawatt-hours measure how much energy a battery holds. Megawatts measure how fast it charges or discharges. A ranking in MW can order the states differently, and this extract doesn’t carry a MW figure.
Other published totals can disagree with these for three reasons. They may count power in MW rather than energy in MWh. They may count only operating or committed projects. Or they may draw on an earlier AEMO release. Check the unit, the status scope and the release date before comparing any two figures.
What the ranking cannot tell you
- Whether announced projects get built. Status records where a project sat in AEMO’s classes on 31 July 2026. This extract carries no probability of completion.1
- Measured output. These are reported nameplate figures, not measured delivery or availability.
- Change since the previous release. Only the July 2026 release is covered here, so no release-on-release movement is shown.
- Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Neither appears in the NEM release.1
- Power rating. A ranking in MW needs a different field.
- The largest operating battery in each state. For individual sites, use the site-by-site ranking.
More grid storage research sits in the energy storage category. We refresh this ranking when AEMO publishes its next Generation Information release. Subscribe to our research to receive the update.
Frequently asked questions
Does this ranking include Western Australia?
No. It uses AEMO’s NEM Generation Information release, which lists Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Western Australia and the Northern Territory aren’t in it.1
Does Tasmania have any operating grid batteries in AEMO’s release?
Not in the July 2026 battery rows. Tasmania reports 0 MWh In Service and 4,274 MWh across five sites, all Publicly Announced.1 Nook BESS makes up 3,024 MWh of that.1
How often is this ranking updated?
We refresh it when AEMO publishes its next NEM Generation Information release. The current version uses the release dated 31 July 2026.1
Sources checked
Company-owned pages establish what a company says. They do not prove a market conclusion. Each source is dated so readers can judge each claim.
