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One of Australia’s largest energy retailers and generators is on the hunt for a financial partner to help it build a big grid-connected battery energy storage system (BESS) in eastern Victoria.

EnergyAustralia has put a 50 per cent equity stake in its “shovel-ready” Wooreen project on the table, a 350-megawatt project in the Latrobe Valley which the gentailer hopes to reach financial close by the end of this year, and tapped renewable specialists ICA Partners to drum up interest.

ICA Partners are pitching Wooreen to interested parties as “one of the largest BESS assets in Victoria” and “one of the longest-duration systems in the national energy market (NEM)” in a teaser seen by Street Talk.

“The asset is expected to play a critical role in stabilising the local grid in the absence of retiring dispatchable synchronous generation,” interested parties were told.

ICA Partners will run a two-stage auction process and has opened the door to indicative offers. The firm is also arranging a senior secured project finance debt staple, expected to close alongside the equity sale. EnergyAustralia has committed to maintaining its remaining 50 per cent interest in Wooreen.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

The Australian sharemarket climbed above 8000 points for the first time in a broad rally that’s been buoyed by speculation that the US Federal Reserve is on the cusp of cutting interest rates.

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