Victoria secures 15-year offtake agreement with 400 MW Baranduda battery

Victoria's State Electricity Commission has committed $43 million for a stake in the 400 MW Baranduda battery project, a 1.86 GWh facility being built near Wodonga. The 4.65-hour system is scheduled to begin operation in late 2028 and will be Victoria's largest battery by duration. The agreement, a 15-year offtake, is the first public-private partnership between the Victorian government and a superannuation fund for a renewable energy project. The battery sits adjacent to the critical Victoria-NSW interconnector.

Where this fits

This deal illustrates the whole-system cost of a renewables-only grid. A 400 MW battery with 4.65 hours of storage can hold 1.86 GWh: enough to supply evening peak demand for one night, not to cover weather-dependent supply across seasons. Victoria's 95% renewable target by 2035 requires not only wind and solar farms, but also massive investment in batteries for daily cycling and gas plants for seasonal gaps. The battery sits next to the interconnector because interstate firming, importing power from gas-fired generation elsewhere, is part of the unstated plan. This is not a weakness in the battery; it is a design feature of a grid that cannot firm itself.

What it means

Victoria is building a grid of weather-dependent sources that cannot stand alone. That complexity and cost, batteries, overbuilt transmission, gas standby, supply-chain dependence on China for lithium-ion cells and critical minerals, is the price of the political choice to exclude nuclear. A firm generation source with 60-year asset life and zero fuel risk would cost less over the grid's lifetime and eliminate sovereign dependence on commodity markets and foreign battery makers. Instead, Victoria is writing 15-year cheques for batteries that will degrade, age out, and need replacement within the infrastructure's operating horizon.