New Zealand's power company Contact Energy has commissioned its first grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS), a 100 MW/200 MWh installation located at New Zealand Steel’s Glenbrook site in South Auckland (Contact Energy press release, 21/05/2026).
The Glenbrook Ohurua Battery 1 consists of 56 Tesla Megapack 2XL units, offers a storage duration of up to 2 hours, and is capable of responding to grid signals in under one second, according to the press release. Construction began in July 2024 and was completed on schedule and under budget. “With the rapid decline in the gas market, Contact’s new battery system strengthens winter energy resilience”, said the company.
Contact Energy is also advancing Glenbrook Ohurua Battery 2, a 200 MW/400 MWh project co-located with the first battery, representing an additional NZD235m (USD138m) investment. The project is expected to become operational in early 2028. Together, both systems will deliver up to 300 MW/600 MWh of capacity, equivalent to powering around 132,000 homes for up to two hours during peak demand.