Bellambi Heights BESS optimisation deal hands OptiGrid 408MW NEM mandate

Energy-Storage.News reports that Bellambi Heights BESS optimisation has been handed to OptiGrid, after Singapore-headquartered clean energy developer Vena Energy selected the firm to provide trading optimisation services for its 408MW battery energy storage system (BESS) under construction in New South Wales.

The project comprises two adjacent 204MW units at Bellambi Heights in the Beryl region. Initial energisation is expected in late 2026, with full commercial operations targeted for mid-2027, according to Vena Group. That timeline matters: the National Electricity Market (NEM) is in a period of rapid transition, and a 408MW dispatchable asset of this scale has real work to do in smoothing the grid as coal capacity exits.

What OptiGrid’s OptiBidder platform actually does

OptiGrid’s platform in focus here is OptiBidder, which the company says uses proprietary AI-powered forecasting and optimisation algorithms to support trading decisions. In practice, that means the platform will optimise and submit bids across both energy and Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS) markets in response to market signals, covering the full range of Bellambi Heights BESS optimisation functions the project requires to participate in the NEM.

The distinction Sahand Karimi, OptiGrid’s chief executive, draws is worth noting. ‘Capturing the full value of batteries like Bellambi requires not only accurate forecasting but also an optimiser that can account for offtake obligations and relevant constraints,’ Karimi said. That is a direct reference to the commercial complexity layered on top of a pure dispatch problem: a battery with a long-term offtake agreement cannot simply chase spot price arbitrage without regard for its contracted obligations.

Which brings us to the $200 million agreement in the background. Vena Group has signed a long-term battery storage agreement valued at approximately $200 million with Danish energy trading company InCommodities for the Bellambi Heights BESS. That deal, struck during a Danish royal state visit, shapes the commercial envelope within which OptiBidder will have to operate. An optimiser that cannot model contracted constraints alongside spot market signals is, as Karimi implies, the wrong tool for this job.

Scale, selection and what Bellambi Heights can deliver

Vena Energy says Bellambi Heights will be capable of supplying enough electricity to power the average consumption of around 280,000 homes for approximately two and a half hours. That headline metric is a useful proxy for capacity, though it says nothing about how many cycles the system will actually run or what the real-world revenue stack will look like across energy, FCAS and any contracted volumes.

Owen Sela, Vena Energy’s head of Australia, said the decision followed a detailed evaluation. ‘Their experience optimising battery bidding in the NEM made them well suited to a project of this scale,’ Sela said of OptiGrid. ‘This will support the battery’s role in delivering grid stability and reliability for the region and integrating more renewable energy into the system.’

The selection process was described by both parties as rigorous and data-driven. OptiGrid already provides bidding services to a portfolio of hybrid and standalone BESS projects in the NEM, so Bellambi Heights is an extension of an established book rather than a speculative first outing. For a project carrying a nine-figure offtake commitment alongside standard NEM participation, that track record was presumably a floor requirement, not a differentiator on its own.

The NEM context gives the deal its stakes. FCAS markets in particular have become increasingly competitive as more batteries compete for the same frequency regulation revenues. The ability to optimise across both energy and FCAS simultaneously, while honouring contracted obligations, is the operational challenge that Vena Energy’s evaluation was evidently designed to probe. Initial energisation at Bellambi Heights is the next concrete test of whether OptiBidder’s algorithms deliver what the pitch deck promised.