GenusPlus Wins EPC Contract For Koolunga Battery Project
The Koolunga project will be located about six kilometres southeast of Koolunga and will connect to an existing substation at Brinkworth, and it has secured required planning and environmental approvals together with community impact assessments. GenusPlus indicated that building works are expected to commence shortly and that the construction phase is anticipated to create around 110 jobs. The battery is designed to provide four hours of discharge and, when fully charged, could supply electricity to up to 26,000 homes.
The project is scheduled for commission in September 2027 and forms part of a broader shift in South Australia towards greater renewable integration, where renewables supplied the majority of generation in the last quarter of 2025. The state hosts large-scale battery facilities such as the Hornsdale Power Reserve and has high per capita rooftop solar penetration, factors that support further deployment of storage. GenusPlus said the project will strengthen local grid stability and flexibility as thermal plants retire.
Across Australia, the transition to renewables and storage is prompting a redesign of grid architecture to combine renewable capacity, battery storage, grid forming inverters, synchronous condensers and gas backup as stabilising technologies. The Australian Energy Market Operator framework highlights hybrid systems of renewables, storage and gas as the least-cost pathway to a fully renewable system by 2050, and large battery energy storage systems are expected to play a growing role in reliability and flexibility. The Koolunga contract adds to the pipeline of utility scale projects that support this transformation. Market participants noted increasing demand for integrated Balance of Plant solutions.