Akaysha Energy and Snowy Hydro sign 15-year virtual tolling agreement

This is Snowy Hydro’s first battery offtake agreement and, at 220 MW contracted capacity, is the largest four-hour VTA in the Australian market, setting a precendent for the sector.

Over the 15-year term, this VTA will strengthen Snowy Hydro’s ability to help manage wholesale market volatility while enhancing its product offering to mass-market, large scale commercial, industrial, and wholesale customers.

For Snowy Hydro, the offtake structure delivers the benefits of physically building and operating a battery, without the capital, construction, and operational burden, making it a highly capital-efficient solution. For Akaysha, the VTA will underpin its project financing with highly bankable contracted revenues.

The Elaine BESS’ strategic location in Southwest Victoria will help support reliable electricity supply to Victoria. It will manage transmission outage risks and support the integration of more wind and solar into the National Electricity Market (NEM).

Construction is due to commence in late September 2025, with the battery providing up to four hours of energy storage.

Dennis Barnes, CEO of Snowy Hydro, responded: “Snowy’s unique portfolio of on-demand power stations and electricity storage is the key to the strength of our contribution to reliable electricity supply to homes and businesses and to the introduction of more wind and solar across the grid. This deal with Akaysha adds a new short-duration storage layer to our portfolio, which will work hand-in-hand with the long-duration storage capabilities of our pumped hydro assets.”

Paul Curnow, Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer at Akaysha Energy, added: “This agreement represents a step change in the way large scale storage can be delivered to the market and showcases strong market confidence in the value of BESS as a long-term energy solution. By partnering with Snowy Hydro, we’re demonstrating how flexible, long-term virtual offtake arrangements can unlock major battery projects and deliver value in the wholesale energy market.”

‘Virtual tolls’ – as these financial storage contracts are known – allow energy providers to secure the market benefits of battery capabilities, such as rapid dispatch and arbitrage, via a financial arrangement rather than physical ownership and operation. Under VTAs, the buyer has the right to notionally charge and discharge a 'virtual battery’ as if it owned or operated the physical battery itself. The 15-year term sets a new benchmark for investment-grade battery contracts in Australia.

As the fourth offtake agreement for Akaysha Energy, this VTA demonstrates Akaysha’s position as an innovative market leader and proves the case for the economic benefits of large scale batteries to market participants, investors, and consumers.

This VTA follows Akaysha Energy’s first VTA signed in August 2024 with EnergyAustralia – a 12-year, 200 MW offtake for its 415 MW Orana BESS. This agreement was underpinned by AUS$650 million debt financing from a syndicate of 11 domestic and global banks to fund the construction of the battery.

In February 2025, Akaysha Energy announced a long-term Battery Revenue Swap Agreement with Gunvor Group, one of the world’s largest independent commodities trading houses, for Akaysha’s Brendale BESS. Additionally, earlier, in July 2023, Akaysha completed what was the first Battery Revenue Swap Agreement of its kind at the time, with Re2 Capital, for its 155 MW Ulinda Park BESS in Queensland’s Western Downs.

Akaysha’s total contracted capacity across its portfolio now exceeds 1.6 GW, including two assets in construction and two in final commissioning.

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