NSW deep dive › Central-West Orana REZ › Birriwa Battery Energy Storage System

Birriwa Battery Energy Storage System

ACEN Australia

BESSapprovedConfidence: Very high

Capacity and technology

Technology

BESS

Capacity (MW)

600 MW

Storage

1.20 GWh

Estimated capex, local spend and peak workforce

Total development cost

~$840M benchmark estimate

1200 MWh × $0.7M/MWh (BESS)

Industry benchmark only — not project-specific. Sources: Clean Energy Council, BloombergNEF 2024 Australian utility-scale LCOE inputs, AEMO ISP 2024 cost assumptions. Actual capex varies materially by site, OEM, supply chain and grid-connection works.

Estimated local / regional spend

~$185M benchmark estimate

22% of capex — Clean Energy Council benchmark for renewable energy construction in regional Australia. Actual local content varies by project siting, procurement strategy and any access-scheme local-content conditions.

Estimated peak construction workforce

~480 roles benchmark estimate

Industry benchmark: ~0.7 FTE/MW wind, 0.5 FTE/MW solar, 0.4 FTE/MWh BESS, 1.5 FTE/MW pumped hydro. Peak during civil/electrical phase only — operations workforce is typically ~5-10% of construction peak.

Workforce breakdown — sector mix and phasing

Sector mix and phase distribution for the estimated construction workforce. Basis: industry norm (Clean Energy Council, ARENA, AEMO ISP 2024 + comparable EIS Social Impact Assessments). Numbers are decision-support indicators, not a project-specific forecast.

By service sector / industry (peak year)

Civil / earthworks

~72 FTE

Electrical trades

~216 FTE

Mechanical / structural

~72 FTE

Plant operators

~24 FTE

PM / engineering / env

~48 FTE

Logistics / admin

~48 FTE

By phase (across construction window)

Phase	FTE	What's happening
Mobilisation + civils (year 1)	~288	Site prep, access roads, foundations, early electrical. Civil trades dominant.
Peak construction (year 2)	~480	All trades concurrent. Turbine / panel delivery, electrical install, commissioning prep.
Commissioning / demob (year 3)	~336	Specialist electrical and testing. Civil and structural ramping down.
Operations (ongoing)	~34	Permanent O&M workforce — typically 5–10% of construction peak. Plus periodic major-maintenance windows.

Sector mix from CEC, ARENA and AEMO ISP workforce profiles for utility-scale Australian builds. Phase distribution from comparable EIS Social Impact Assessments. Indicative only — actual workforce varies with OEM, contractor strategy, weather and OSOM scheduling.

Approvals and access rights

Project status

approved

Planning status

Approved by IPC August 2024 as part of Birriwa Solar SSD-29508870

Access right status

awarded — CWO REZ access scheme

EPBC status

verify

Grid connection

in CWO REZ access scheme network design

Financial close

post-approval; not at financial close

Construction start

unknown

Operations start

unknown

Location

LGA

Mid-Western Regional

Region

Central West NSW

REZ

Central-West Orana REZ

REZ relationship

inside declared REZ

Coordinates

-32.3, 149.4 (approximate)

Project documents — EIS, SEARs, proponent pages

Direct links to public documents and pages for this project. Phase 2 ingestion will pull updates automatically; Sprint 0 entries are verified manually with a confidence score per record.

planning portal pageConfidence: Very high
Birriwa Solar Farm (incl. BESS) — NSW Planning Portal
https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/projects/birriwa-solar-farm ↗
BESS approved as part of the combined solar + battery SSD.

Notes

600 MW for 2 hours = 1200 MWh. Approved as co-located system with Birriwa Solar.

Source confidence: 88/100
Last verified: 2026-05-13
Every material fact on this page is sourced. A "View source" link is provided per source below.

Source evidence

Confidence: Very high

primaryNSW Planning Portal — Major Projects
View source ↗
Authoritative for NSW SSD and SSI planning status. Hosts each project's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), SEARs, response to submissions, and other planning documents. Outranks proponent and media reports for planning_status. Per-project EIS and SSD page URLs are tracked under each project's project_documents.
primaryEnergyCo NSW
View source ↗
Primary authority for NSW Renewable Energy Zones, access schemes, access-right tender outcomes and REZ project coordination under the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Act 2020.
primaryAEMO Services / AusEnergy Services
View source ↗
Consumer Trustee for NSW LTESA / access-right tenders. Authoritative for access-right award status.
secondaryProponent project websites
View source ↗
Proponent-supplied content from each project's dedicated page on the proponent's website. Useful for technology, capacity intent, community engagement messaging, project newsletters, fact sheets and timeline updates. Cannot override official planning_status or epbc_status. Per-project page URLs are tracked under each project's project_documents.

Open questions

Planning status against the NSW Planning Portal — verify SSD reference.
EPBC referral status — verify against DCCEEW public notices.
Storage MWh and voltage figures — confirm from proponent documents and AEMO Generation Information.
Workforce and accommodation commitments — confirm in SSD documentation or VPA.
First Nations engagement reporting — confirm in IEP / cultural heritage chapter.

See this project in context

REZ workspace

Central-West Orana REZ

All projects, pressure bands and shared-value commitments for this REZ

LGA detail

Mid-Western Regional

7 projects · everything affecting this council area

Workforce + supply ratio

Demand vs ABS baseline

How this REZ's peak compares to existing regional workforce

Regional spend

Annual flow by year