At a glance

  • Firmus Technologies announced a 12-year, 600MW wholesale energy supply agreement with Gunvor Group on 30 June 2026, to power its planned South Australian AI factories at Tailem Bend and Stirling North.

  • The first physical asset under the deal is GreenPoint Energy’s Koolunga battery near Brinkworth in the state’s Mid North, a 200MW / 800MWh grid-forming system now under construction, with commercial operation targeted for the first half of 2028.

  • Koolunga accounts for more than half of Firmus’s initial firming capacity, and reaches operation before the bulk of the AI load it is contracted to firm.

  • By Firmus’s account, the Gunvor agreement is linked to 1.2GW of new renewable generation and 1.5GWh of new battery storage by 2032, and commits the company to at least 2.5MWh of new firming for every 1MW of contracted load.

  • Firmus has committed to cut consumption for up to 220 hours a year when wholesale prices exceed agreed thresholds, which can free capacity for other users during peak grid stress.

  • The deal is the first commercial energy supply contract to put South Australia's "new energy for new demand" principle into practice, matching new AI load with new firmed renewable supply the developer contracts.

Firmus contracts the battery before the factory load arrives

On 30 June 2026, Firmus Technologies announced a 12-year wholesale energy supply agreement with commodities trader Gunvor Group for 600MW of firm electricity, sized to power its first South Australian AI factory campuses at Tailem Bend and Stirling North. Those campuses represent 2.7GW of planned capacity under Project Southgate, Firmus’s program to build AI factories in regional Australia.

The first physical asset to emerge from that agreement is a battery. Firmus has taken a long-term offtake over GreenPoint Energy’s Koolunga battery, a 200MW / 800MWh grid-forming storage system under construction near Brinkworth in South Australia’s Mid North. GreenPoint has engaged GenusPlus to build it, with construction due to finish in 2027 and commercial operation targeted for the first half of 2028. Koolunga accounts for more than half of Firmus’s initial firming capacity commitment, and GreenPoint estimates the system can power up to 26,000 homes for four hours.

The construction order carries the signal: the firming reaches operation ahead of the bulk of the AI load it is contracted to serve, rather than being retrofitted once the factories are drawing power. Oliver Curtis, co-CEO of Firmus, described Koolunga as “the first example of that commitment already underway, a major new battery that strengthens the electricity system while we build.”

What the Gunvor agreement puts into the grid

The energy agreement is the first commercial deal supporting the Australian energy and water policies Firmus published the same week. By Firmus’s account, Gunvor will back 1.2GW of new renewable generation and 1.5GWh of new battery storage by 2032, structured so that supply, firming and price risk are handled through a single long-term contract.

Component

Commitment

Energy supply agreement

600MW of firm electricity, 12-year term, with Gunvor Group

New renewable generation

1.2GW to be developed by 2032

New battery storage

1.5GWh to be developed by 2032

First firming asset

Koolunga battery, 200MW / 800MWh, grid-forming

Demand response

Up to 220 hours a year when wholesale prices exceed agreed thresholds

Firming commitment

At least 2.5MWh of new firming for every 1MW of contracted load

Source: Firmus Technologies disclosures, June 2026.

The firming ratio is what operators and grid planners will scrutinise. A commitment to at least 2.5MWh of new firming for every 1MW of contracted load means the storage grows in step with the demand it serves. Firmus has also committed to procuring more new renewable generation than it contracts for its own use, funding its own transmission connection, and paying commercial electricity rates without preferential tariffs.

Firming, not generation, is South Australia’s binding constraint

South Australia runs the highest combined wind and solar share of any mainland The deal is the first commercial energy supply contract to put into practice the principle South Australia set out with its data centre strategy on 23 June 2026. The government calls it "new energy for new demand", under which each new load is served by supply and firming the developer brings or contracts. IREN's earlier Bundey agreement secured a grid connection for a large anchor load; the Firmus deal is the first to contract the new generation and firming the principle calls for. The state has announced a dedicated Data Centre and AI Infrastructure Act to sit alongside the strategy, though the bill is not yet drafted and its measures remain a matter of stated policy rather than legislated requirement. The Firmus deal shows an operator moving on the principle before any Act exists.

Unlike conventional grid-following inverters, a grid-forming system can set voltage and frequency for the network rather than simply following it, the kind of system-strength service a grid running heavily on wind and solar increasingly needs. On our tracking, the demand-response commitment reinforces that role: Firmus reducing consumption for up to 220 hours a year during price spikes frees capacity for other users at the moments the grid is tightest. It is the same practice the national industry already runs at scale. By Data Centres Australia’s account, members fund it through 1.5 TWh of new generation and A$10.3 billion of grid investment committed by 2030.

This is the first commercial test of the principle South Australia set out with its data centre strategy on 23 June 2026. The government calls it “new energy for new demand”, under which each new load is served by supply and firming the developer brings or contracts. The state has announced a dedicated Data Centre and AI Infrastructure Act to sit alongside the strategy, though the bill is not yet drafted and its measures remain a matter of stated policy rather than legislated requirement. The Firmus deal shows an operator moving on the principle before any Act exists.

South Australia’s gigawatt AI pipeline takes shape

The Firmus campuses join a pipeline that is converting South Australian ambition into contracted projects. On 3 June 2026, IREN signed a transmission connection agreement for a planned 800MW campus at Bundey, roughly 125km northeast of Adelaide, targeting first power from 2028. Between IREN’s Bundey campus and Firmus’s 2.7GW Southgate pipeline, South Australia now has gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure anchored to its renewable grid, despite a smaller existing data centre footprint than New South Wales or Victoria.

Premier Peter Malinauskas framed the announcement as evidence the state’s clean energy lead is drawing new industry. “South Australia is leading the clean energy transition, and this project demonstrates how that leadership is attracting the industries of the future,” he said, pointing to new jobs and long-term investment in regional South Australia. For a Mid North community, the battery and its construction workforce arrive first, and the factory investment follows.

What to watch

Three items will show whether the model holds. The first is Koolunga’s construction timeline. Reaching commercial operation on schedule in the first half of 2028 would be the first proof that firming can lead the load. The second is the pace of the Tailem Bend and Stirling North factories, and how quickly contracted load follows the firming into the grid. The third is the wider pipeline: whether South Australia’s connection queue, which we track through AEMO’s disclosed data centre pipeline, converts more of its gigawatt ambition into projects that put new supply in ahead of new demand.