Open Electricity Dispatch — May 2026 | Open Electricity

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What caught our eye this month:

🥱 NSW, once again, breaks battery discharge record<br>𖣘 QLD wind hits a daily high<br>⚡ NEM batteries set daily charging record<br>🏭 Coal hits a new daily low in WA<br>🚧 QLD battery commits pass 10GWh milestone

May typically sees consumption rise from the April low as colder weather blows in. Wind generation typically increases by about 15% during this period, often climbing to yearly highs that have fallen anywhere from June to September in recent years. Solar output declines, particularly in the southern states where seasonal variation is greatest.

In 2026 this was especially the case, with solar generation in both Victoria and South Australia falling below last May’s levels, despite over 400 MW of utility-scale solar and substantial rooftop capacity added. Regardless, the NEM saw reduced gas and black coal generation, offset by substantially higher wind output than last year.

May's end also marked the end of autumn, typically a quieter period for the NEM. Autumn combines lower solar generation than summer with weaker wind output than winter and spring – with fossil generation muted due to reduced demand. This is the general pattern, but the story varies considerably between states. Queensland, for instance, saw more coal generation in autumn than summer in the years 2022–2025, a trend broken this year with a decline of over 4%.

View all records

Notable Records

1. Highest battery discharge over a calendar month in NSW

New South Wales recorded 111 GWh of battery discharge in May, an 18% increase on the previous record of 94 GWh set just a month earlier in April. This marks the sixth consecutive month that NSW has broken its monthly battery discharge record. The first month of this streak, December 2025, recorded just 43 GWh – less than half the current monthly figure. NSW is also the second state in the NEM to achieve 100 GWh of battery discharge in a calendar month, with Queensland having reached the milestone in April, and the WEM achieving the figure in December last year.

This growth is driven primarily by the completion of several large batteries. While over 3 GWh of storage has commenced since December, the largest growth has come from batteries that began operation earlier, with over 70 GWh of discharge from three batteries (Eraring, Waratah Super Battery and Limondale), each having commenced prior to December.

NSW also passed another battery milestone in May, becoming the first state to surpass its entire 2025 battery discharge total.

NSW battery discharge is running far ahead of previous years<br>Cumulative battery discharge in NSW

Energy Discharged (MWh)

Day of Year<br>Source: Open Electricity

In 2025, NSW batteries discharged a total of 282 GWh, a figure eclipsed on 2 May this year. On this day, NSW batteries discharged over five times more than the same date last year, with the 2025 figure at just 50 GWh.

2. Highest wind generation in a day in Queensland

Queensland broke its record for the highest wind generation in a day on the 12th of May, registering 32,242 MWh, and surpassing the previous high set in January this year.

Across the NEM, wind records most often fall in winter and early spring. Each monthly high since 2017 has occurred from June to September, reflecting the fact that most installed capacity is in the southern states, where wind conditions are generally strongest in that period.

Queensland is slightly different. While it also experiences strong winter winds, its records have more often broken in the period preceding the southern pattern. Previous wind records in Queensland have fallen in May during five of the past seven years.

Where the wind blew: wind farm performance on 12 May 2026

capacity factor<br>1.3 77.2<br>Max Capacity (mw) 0.6<br>445.3<br>890.0

Source: Open Electricity

The record generation on 12 May is a particularly dramatic instance of this, with northern NSW and Queensland seeing especially strong conditions, while Victoria and South Australia saw low generation even by May standards. Even the Macintyre Wind Farm – the still-commissioning Acciona facility that is destined to become the southern hemisphere’s largest wind farm – saw a substantially greater capacity factor than many facilities across the southern states.

3. Highest battery charge over a day in the NEM

On the 15th of May, batteries charged for a total of 18,585MWh, 26% higher than the record standing prior to this month. The 15th also featured the monthly record being broken in NSW, Victoria and Queensland.

Previous records have often been driven by a single large battery having an outsized effect on NEM or state activity. For example, the Eraring battery drove the previous record in December, comprising over a quarter of the country's battery charging activity – equivalent to about two cycles in a day.

The 15 May activity, by contrast, reflected a more distributed increase in battery capacity....