Blackstone enters the EPBC process at 500MW / 2,000MWh

The Australian Government's EPBC Act Public Portal lists the Blackstone Battery Energy Storage System under referral number 2026/10624.

The project is proposed at 45 Patrick Street, Swanbank, adjacent to the existing Blackstone 275kV Substation.

The federal portal currently lists the project status as Referral Decision – Open for Public Comment. This means the federal process is active; it should not be described as a completed EPBC approval.

The referral describes a standalone 500MW / 2,000MWh BESS, equivalent to four hours of storage at maximum discharge.

The project is being advanced through Blackstone BESS OpCo Pty Ltd, with Octopus Australia identified publicly as the owner/developer behind the project.

The referral sets out a clear pathway from assessment to Notice to Proceed

The strongest commercial element of the new referral is the sequence Octopus has identified for the period following the federal process.

The project still needs to finalise Operational Works approvals with Ipswich City Council, complete project financing and achieve financial close.

It must also execute its planned Tesla EPC and Long-Term Service Agreement arrangements and complete connection and access agreements with Powerlink Queensland.

The referral then identifies financial close and the issue of a Notice to Proceed for construction in Q4 2026.

Pre-construction sequence

The key dependencies are commercial as well as regulatory

This is what makes Blackstone more commercially tangible than a typical early-stage battery referral.

The project is not simply waiting for an environmental decision. Financing, technology delivery, long-term servicing, transmission access and formal construction authorisation are all identified in the near-term pathway.

If those steps align with the current schedule, physical works could commence within months.

Tesla is identified for EPC and long-term service — but execution remains ahead

The EPBC referral explicitly states that the project intends to execute the Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract and Long-Term Service Agreement with Tesla.

That wording is commercially important.

It identifies Tesla as the intended counterparty for two critical parts of the delivery model, but it does not say the EPC contract or LTSA has already been executed.

The distinction matters because execution of the Tesla agreements sits alongside financial close, Powerlink agreements and NTP in the project's remaining pre-construction sequence.

November construction would open a broad civil, electrical and high-voltage work program

Construction is currently expected to commence in November 2026 and continue until Q1 2029.

The referral describes considerably more than battery-container installation. The physical scope extends across site preparation, civil infrastructure, mine remediation, high-voltage works and commissioning.

Select the workstreams below to see what the federal referral currently identifies.

Contractor relevance

The construction scope reaches from remediation and earthworks to 275kV energisation

Blackstone's industrial-site history creates a delivery task that extends beyond standard battery installation.

Contractors could ultimately be required across geotechnical work, mine remediation, civil construction, drainage, concrete, high-voltage electrical systems, cabling, earthing, equipment installation, logistics and commissioning.

These are identified physical project workstreams, but BBI has not identified a public Blackstone-specific subcontract package register. They should not be treated as confirmed open tenders unless later procurement notices are released.

Powerlink agreements are another critical pre-construction gate

Blackstone is proposed directly beside the existing Blackstone 275kV Substation, placing the project close to major transmission infrastructure within the Swanbank–New Chum industrial precinct.

The referral says Octopus still intends to execute connection and access agreements with Powerlink Queensland covering the Blackstone Substation extension and installation of high-voltage underground cables.

Powerlink's own southern Queensland planning material has previously shown Blackstone BESS connection applications in the Moreton zone.

The same Blackstone Substation area already plays an important role in the wider Swanbank energy precinct. Powerlink completed the connection works for CleanCo's separate 250MW Swanbank BESS, which was energised in October 2025.

That project should not be confused with Octopus Australia's Blackstone BESS, but it demonstrates the strategic role of the existing 275kV network in supporting large-scale storage around Swanbank.

The current federal scope is 2GWh — double the energy capacity of the earlier approved configuration

Blackstone has been in development for several years, but the published capacity has changed.

Ipswich City Council and the State Assessment and Referral Agency approved the project in June 2024 under an earlier configuration widely described as 500MW / 1,000MWh.

Blackstone's existing project website still refers to a one-gigawatt-hour battery.

The new federal referral, however, describes the proposed action as 500MW / 2,000MWh.

At 500MW of power and 2,000MWh of stored energy, the current proposal represents a nominal four-hour battery configuration.

No reliable current total project CAPEX was identified in the primary sources reviewed, so BBI is not attaching a speculative dollar value to the project.

For comparison, BBI is already tracking other major Queensland battery builds including the 2.4GWh Smoky Creek and Guthrie's Gap battery program, the Fraser Coast Hybrid Project now in construction and APA's Sybella Creek solar and battery investment near Mount Isa.

Confirmed now versus the next commercial gates

Contractor watch

The next signals could arrive quickly if the November program is maintained

Blackstone's schedule leaves relatively little space between the present federal process and the targeted start of construction.

That makes financial close, Tesla contract execution, Powerlink agreements and NTP particularly important milestones for Queensland's battery and electrical contracting market.

If those conditions are achieved, the project would move rapidly from development into a multi-year civil, electrical and high-voltage build.

What BBI will watch next