Octopus Investments Australia has acquired the Hanworth BESS in New South Wales from EnerVest, taking control of a large-scale storage project still in early development. The asset sits near Bannaby, west of Bowral, and is planned as a 1.2 GW / 4.8 GWh, 4-hour battery connected to Transgrid’s Bannaby Terminal Station.

The key detail is not the size. It’s the structure. Octopus takes ownership and responsibility for planning approvals, grid connection, and procurement, while EnerVest remains involved across planning, environmental, community, and stakeholder engagement. This is a clean split between capital control and local execution expertise.

The single insight is clear: capital is moving earlier in the BESS lifecycle, but only with execution risk shared. Octopus is underwriting development-stage risk, yet retaining the original developer to protect schedule, approvals, and community outcomes. This is not a passive acquisition; it’s a controlled farm-down with responsibilities explicitly allocated.

Commercially, this matters because projects of this scale—12 hectares, 330 kV connection, and a 1.2 km transmission line—carry real permitting and grid risk. Keeping the developer engaged reduces rework risk and protects time-to-construction, which is now a primary value driver in Australian storage.

The project is intended to support long-term electricity supply contracts for large commercial customers, reinforcing that investors are aligning early-stage storage with future offtake strategies, not pure merchant optionality.

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