EDP to Accelerate Australian Solar & Batteries After CIS Awards

When Portugal’s EDP said it would speed up its Australian pipeline, it wasn’t just a corporate milestone—it was a signal about how the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) is reshaping the market. With long-term revenue support now in place, the company plans to move faster on two utility-scale hybrids: Punchs Creek in Queensland and Merino near Goulburn, NSW. Together they add roughly 1.7 GW of solar-plus-battery capacity to the NEM, with project milestones brought forward thanks to underwriting that smooths cash-flow risk.

Why does the CIS matter so much here? Because it takes some of the volatility out of merchant renewables. In essence, government underwriting creates a revenue floor (often with cap-and-collar elements): if prices slump, projects are supported; if profits run high, the public gets a share back. That stability is what turns large hybrid schemes from “interesting” to “financeable”—and it’s why hybrids have dominated recent award rounds.

The broader context is a shift away from pure daytime megawatts toward dispatchable clean energy. In the same period, the Commonwealth confirmed 20 successful CIS projects totalling about 6.6 GW of new generation paired with substantial batteries—an explicit bet on evening and peak coverage. Trade coverage emphasised that hybrids are now the norm, not the exception, because they deliver when the system needs it most.

For suppliers and delivery partners, the practical ripple effects are already visible. Hybrids mean balance-of-plant packages that line up civil works, grid connection, EMS, and BESS integration under tighter delivery windows. They also mean different commercial rhythms: underwritten revenues make timetables more predictable from approvals to FID, with procurement waves that are easier to anticipate—and to qualify for—than purely merchant plays. If you specialise in grid studies, BESS commissioning, or long-lead electrical gear, the runway is clearer than it’s been in years.

Zoom in on the two sites and the contours become concrete. Punchs Creek is flagged as a large solar field plus a sizeable battery (planning materials point to a ~400 MW BESS with ~480 MWp PV) in Queensland’s Darling Downs; Merino sits south of Goulburn with a similarly scaled solar array and a ~450 MW battery configuration. Local planning artefacts and company fact sheets point to staged delivery and substantial storage footprints—exactly the sort of builds CIS is designed to pull forward.

Why this matters to government tendering

• Value for money now explicitly includes firming and reliability outcomes, not just low-cost generation.
• Evidence expectations are rising: buyers will scrutinise EMS integration, FCAS capability and grid-connection proofs.
• Risk allocation is in focus: warranties, degradation models and responsibility for grid-services performance must be credible.