Capacity Investment Scheme NEM Dispatchable

About the Tender

Tender 3 is a competitive process to secure dispatchable capacity in the National Electricity Market (NEM).

The Tender is seeking an indicative target of 4 GW of four-hour equivalent dispatchable capacity, or 16 GWh of dispatchable capacity, that will be operational before 31 December 2029.

Projects with a minimum storage duration of two hours, and a minimum size of 30 MW are expected to be eligible.

Registrations closed at 5pm AEDT 11 December 2024. Shortlisted Proponents were invited to Stage B – Financial Value Bid on 20 March 2025.

Renewable Energy Transformation Agreement (RETA) allocations

The Australian Government has released a Market Brief on Renewable Energy Transformation Agreement allocations by jurisdiction.

The brief provides information on CIS capacity allocations by jurisdictions, agreed through RETA negotiations.

Tender Guidelines

Read the Tender Guidelines and draft Capacity Investment Scheme Agreement (CISA) for complete information on the process and criteria for CIS Tender 3.

First Nations and Social Licence Market Brief

The First Nations and Social Licence Market Briefing Note provides additional information to assist proponents in preparing quality Bids that address the First Nations and Social Licence Criteria, being Merit Criterion 4, Merit Criterion 5, Merit Criterion 8 and Merit Criterion 9.

The Australian Government has a strong expectation that, as the energy transition develops, genuine and long-lasting economic and social partnerships must emerge between industry and communities to better support and seize the opportunities of a net-zero economy.

Projects assessed as low merit against any individual Merit Criterion, including the First Nations commitments and social licence commitments, may be excluded from further assessment and not advance to Stage B of the Tender process.

CIS T3 webinar details

A recording of the webinar is available online here.

Q&A process for proponents

Proponents can view the Stage A Q&As submitted and answered here. A link to Stage B Q&A responses will be provided in due course.

For any general enquiries on the tender process please contact cis-tender-3@aemoservices.com.au.

To view additional tender documents please click on the Tender documents and Q&A tabs.

About AEMO and AEMO Services’ Role

AEMO and AEMO Services have been engaged to support the roll-out of the Australian Government’s Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) as tender delivery partner, bringing together our expertise in energy markets, modelling and infrastructure finance and procurement. AEMO Services is conducting the competitive tender process that will enable the Australian Government to determine which projects the scheme should support.

Our work will help the Australian Government secure reliability and security in energy supply for households and businesses across Australia. We will conduct a two-stage tender process, assessing overall project merit including social licence and financial value. The Australian Government Minister for Climate Change and Energy is the ultimate decision-maker, with a short-list of projects recommended to the Australian Government for final approval.