Akaysha refinances for A$1.75bn as Italy raises battery derating

Mid-October 2026 caught grid batteries at every stage: a bank refinancing in Australia, a rule change in Italy, a supply contract and a tolling deal for Vattenfall, and an inauguration in Greece. The Italian item is the one where success costs money: the more storage Italy expects, the less each new battery is credited for in its capacity market.

Akaysha rolls four batteries into one A$1.75 billion facility

Akaysha Energy has refinanced the project-level debt on four Australian batteries (Brendale, Orana, Ulinda Park and Elaine) into a single A$1.75 billion portfolio facility, the company said on October 20. A consortium of eleven banks backs it, including ANZ, BNP Paribas, Bank of China, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and MUFG. It comprises three facilities with tenors of five, seven and ten years, plus revolving liquidity and contingent instrument facilities that Akaysha says add flexibility as it works through a development pipeline of about 6 GW / 25 GWh in the National Electricity Market.

The headline figure is a refinancing first and a growth platform second. Andrew Wegman, Akaysha's managing director and chief financial and investment officer, said that, as well as refinancing the existing operating and construction assets, the facility "gives us the flexibility to accelerate our next wave of projects while we continue deploying capital where we see the strongest opportunities across the pipeline." The four batteries in the deal are not the four the release lists as fully operational. Elaine, in Victoria, began construction in October 2025 and is on track to finish in the second half of 2027, while the Waratah Super Battery, which Akaysha says has reached final commercial operations, is not among the assets being refinanced.

Italy raises derating for new batteries in its 2028 capacity auction

New batteries will count for less in Italy's capacity auction for delivery year 2028. Grid operator Terna has raised the derating rates for new electrochemical storage, and energy regulator ARERA on October 14 found the revised technical provisions compliant with its capacity market criteria (resolution 370/2026/R/eel, in Italian). Terna filed the revision on September 18, after an August 6 decree from the environment and energy security minister told it to re-evaluate the storage coefficients if the storage capacity authorized or in authorization had grown since the values it proposed on June 25. Terna's updated figures count authorizations already obtained and an estimate of those expected before the auction, net of an estimate of what the MACSE storage auction for 2029 delivery will select.

Less credit means less money. ARERA ties the higher rates directly to the rise in expected authorized capacity and says the result, all else equal, is a contraction of the remuneration that new batteries contracted through the capacity market can earn. The new rates themselves are not printed in the resolution, which applies only to the 2028 auction. The same decree asked Terna to consider holding that auction after the MACSE 2029 auction, which the resolution puts in November 2026.

Vattenfall orders a 1 GWh battery and tolls 400 MWh more

Vattenfall has signed Fluence to deliver a 254 MW battery with over 1,000 MWh of storage at Brunsbüttel, on the site of a nuclear power plant now being decommissioned, Fluence said on October 14. Fluence will deliver the four-hour plant on a turnkey basis on its Gridstack Pro 5000 platform and provide long-term service support. Construction is expected to begin in 2027, with commissioning and connection to 50Hertz's 380 kV network planned for the end of 2028. The order follows Vattenfall's final investment decision on September 10, which named no supplier and put the storage at around 1,000 MWh (up to 1,000 MWh in its fact box). The battery has grown a little in the retelling: October's release says over 1,000 MWh. It is Vattenfall's largest battery project to date and will nearly double the company's existing battery storage capacity, per the release, which cites SolarPower Europe's count of 6.6 GWh of battery storage added in Germany in 2025.

Vattenfall is also contracting for capacity someone else builds. On October 13 it signed a tolling agreement with Royal Vopak for access to 100 MW / 400 MWh of a planned 150 MW, four-hour battery near Meeden in Groningen, which Vopak will develop and operate, with commercial operations expected in the second quarter of 2028. Vattenfall says the deal brings it closer to its goal of contracting at least 1.5 GW of battery capacity across its core markets. Vopak, which describes itself as known for the safe storage of vital energy products, is expanding into electrical energy storage, per the release.

Greece opens a 330 MW, 790 MWh battery in Thessaly

Metlen and Karatzis Group inaugurated a 330 MW, 790 MWh standalone battery in Larissa on October 14, which they call Greece's largest standalone battery energy storage system, Metlen said on October 15. The partners hold it through a joint investment vehicle, 49% Metlen and 51% Karatzis; Metlen built it and handles operation and maintenance, and the investment has loan support from the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended the inauguration.

The hardware is bigger than the nameplate. ESS News reports that the plant uses Jinko ESS's SunTera G2 system, a supplier the announcements did not name, and that Jinko had published a 395 MW / 790 MWh system; the plant's grid connection agreement with transmission operator ADMIE/IPTO caps output at 330 MW at the substation. At the full 330 MW, 790 MWh lasts about 2.4 hours by our arithmetic (power versus energy).