ASL has released its 2026 NSW Consumer Trustee Investment Priorities, setting a strong focus on high-value generation, firming and long-duration storage projects that can bid for an LTESA in a way that delivers value to consumers and ensures projects are commercially viable and deliverable.
The Investment Priorities aim to guide participation in 2026 NSW Roadmap tenders, and reinforce ASL's commitment to accelerating project delivery and supporting high-quality projects through LTESAs. The priorities also reinforce the commitment to supporting projects able to address curtailment challenges in the near-term, while enabling network upgrades that can support new generation through our streamlined authorisation process.
2026 NSW Consumer Trustee Tenders
- Q2 2026 - Generation (2.5 GW) and Long Duration Storage (12GWh)
- Q4 2026 - Generation (2.5 GW)
The Investment Priorities build upon ASL's 2025 Infrastructure Investment Objectives (IIO) report, which is the central planning document for the NSW Roadmap and sets out the development pathway for the next 20 years and tender plan for the next decade.
The 2026 NSW Consumer Trustee Investment Priorities are:
Consumer Mandate
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Safeguarding the long-term interests of consumers |
ASL is required to act in the long-term financial interests of NSW electricity consumers. All projects supported, and network upgrades authorised by ASL will only be done so where the benefits to consumers outweigh the costs. |
Generation Investment Priorities
| High value projects that can fast-track development | Projects should bid for an LTESA in a way that enables them to accelerate and de-risk delivery to be operational by 2030. Projects that have valuable generation profiles, community support, low congestion risk, and are backed by strong proponents have the highest likelihood of success. |
| Continued support for REZ projects | Development in REZs is a key pillar of the NSW Roadmap's strategy to coordinate and incentivise renewable energy and storage investments, with future REZ development underway. REZs have abundant wind and solar potential, leading to greater potential for high value projects. |
| Supporting high-value open access projects | Modelling typically favours wind over solar, driven by wind generation's ability to put downward pressure on wholesale electricity prices, owing to its diverse profiles and complementarity with demand. Solar-hybrid projects have the potential to increase the value of solar to consumers, offering firm and cost-effective generation, quicker development timelines and the flexibility to locate in the existing network. |
| Enabling all viable projects to compete | Projects relying on new network infrastructure to unlock network capacity should bid in a way that makes the project viable; factoring in the impact of near-term curtailment to mitigate financial impacts, allowing them to achieve COD before the full new network capacity is available. |
Firming Investment Priorities
| Firming infrastructure to support near term reliability | Tender 7 is underway seeking batteries (including aggregated portfolios), demand response and other firming technologies to deliver an indicative 500 MW of firm capacity to support reliability in the Sydney-Newcastle-Wollongong subregion by December 2027. Deliverability by this date is a key criterion. Longer duration is generally rewarded in firming tender assessment. |
| Firming infrastructure (incl. gas) to support long term reliability | ASL is currently conducting analysis on the need for firming infrastructure, including gas powered generation that can support NSW's reliability in the early 2030s. |
Long Duration Storage Investment Priorities
| Increased levels of LDS (8h+ duration) to support the transition | Tenders will continue to seek short and longer lead time LDS projects that can contribute to the development pathway. More LDS is needed above and beyond the minimum objectives for both 2030 and 2034, with longer duration projects offering greater benefits |
Network Investment Priorities
| Enabling projects with generator specific network upgrades to enter the market | Projects that require generator-specific network upgrades or have challenging connection costs should work with their network service providers to incorporate the costs of these into their LTESA bid to ensure the project can be viable. |
| Unlocking high value network upgrades | ASL is committed to unlocking extra hosting capacity in REZ where viable. Network upgrades that can satisfy the benchmark of $10,000 / GWh of available generation p.a are eligible to proceed through a streamlined authorisation process. |
Last updated 14 Jan 2026