The Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project in Queensland has become the first new pumped storage facility to be registered in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) in almost four decades. The milestone occurred on 18 November 2025, when the project was officially entered into the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Market Management System (MMS), signalling its progression toward commissioning.
The registration was announced by Geoff Eldridge, National Electricity Market and Energy Transition Observer at Global Power Energy, in a LinkedIn post. The project now appears in the MMS under two generating units (KIDSPHG1 and KIDSPHG2) and two pumping units (KIDSPHL1 and KIDSPHL2). One generating unit has been publicly listed with a rated capacity of 125MW, and the full configuration is expected to provide 250MW of generation and 250MW of pumping capacity.
Located approximately 285km west of Townsville, the Kidston project is being delivered by Genex Power and is designed to provide up to 2,000MWh of stored energy. The facility repurposes two former open-pit mine voids, transforming legacy mining infrastructure into large-scale renewable energy storage.
EnergyAustralia holds full dispatch rights to the facility for up to 30 years under a long-term Energy Storage Services Agreement, with an option to acquire the asset.
The Kidston pumped hydro scheme is viewed as a key development in Australia’s transition to a cleaner and more flexible energy system. It is the first pumped hydro project to enter the NEM since the commissioning of the Tumut 3 scheme in the 1980s. The project is part of the broader Kidston Clean Energy Hub, which also includes solar and proposed wind generation.
