Quinbrook's Brisbane-area grid battery hits 1.86 GWh operational as Stage 2 goes live and Stage 3 closes A$469M (~$305M)

One supplier now backs all three stages of a 3 GWh battery campus near Brisbane that has crossed a key capacity threshold as Stage 2 reached commercial operation and Stage 3 closed A$469 million (roughly $305 million) in debt financing, according to a joint announcement from Quinbrook and CATL (release).

The project, called Supernode, sits at Brendale adjacent to the South Pine substation — a key hub in the Queensland power system and the regional reference node for marginal loss factors, giving the site a favourable grid position and approximately 4,000MW of available connection capacity for phased expansion. With Stages 1 and 2 now in commercial operation, the combined 520MW/1,858MWh footprint makes Supernode the largest battery energy storage system (BESS) in Australia's National Electricity Market, according to independent trade press coverage (energy-storage.news).

Stage 2 is operating under a long-term tolling agreement with Origin Energy. Stage 3, targeted for completion in 2027, will add another 260MW/1,216MWh to push the site to 780MW/3,074MWh. Cumulative project financing across all three stages now stands at roughly A$1.2 billion (about $780 million).

CATL supplies battery systems across all three stages under a long-term service agreement covering condition monitoring, performance tracking, fault response, and preventive maintenance. Performance claims around lifecycle, thermal management, and footprint reductions come from the vendor and have not been independently verified. The next test is Stage 3 construction itself, not the financing close.