Liddell Power Station closed in April 2023 after 50 years, the first of the Hunter’s coal stations to go, which makes its site the region’s working preview of what “after” actually looks like. Three years on, the answer so far is: demolition proceeding, one large battery at the commissioning line, and a redevelopment vision that is still mostly memoranda. All three parts are on AGL’s public record, and they are worth keeping separate, because they are at very different stages of being real.

The demolition

In its 26 May release, AGL describes the stacks demolition as a precision-engineered controlled blast delivered with contractor CMA Contracting: hundreds of charges placed in pre-drilled holes, fired in a single tightly sequenced event with millisecond delays. AGL’s chief operations and construction officer, Matthew Currie, framed it as clearing the way for the site’s redevelopment, and acknowledged what the towers meant locally: “We know that the Liddell Power Station holds deep significance for the local community, employees and families, who worked at or were connected to the site. The demolition was not just a technical event, but an opportunity to acknowledge its important legacy.”

The battery, and AGL’s three dates

The Liddell Battery is the first concrete piece of the site’s second life: 500 MW with two hours’ storage, built by Fluence at a construction cost AGL puts at about $750 million, with more than 600 workers across construction and commissioning. Transgrid built and operates the battery’s 330/33 kV substation, about 450 metres of new 330 kV overhead line and a switchyard extension. The project carries a $35 million federal grant through ARENA’s Advancing Renewables Program and a Long-Term Energy Service Agreement awarded by AEMO Services under the NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap, all per AGL’s project page.

When it will be fully trading is a question AGL has answered three times, each time in its own words:

  • 31 July 2025, in its Tomago investment announcement: Liddell “remains on track to commence operations in early 2026.”
  • 20 March 2026, at the commissioning milestone: construction complete, the first 250 MW under test, and the battery “expected to slowly ramp up to full commercial operations by June 2026.”
  • The live project page, as read on 18 July 2026: “completion and full commercial operations expected by July 2026.”

We note the sequence because all three statements are AGL’s, not because it establishes a missed deadline; commissioning a grid-scale battery involves network and market processes with their own clocks. What the record does establish is that AGL’s stated window closes this month. Whether the company declares full commercial operations in July, or the page’s date moves a fourth time, is the next checkable fact, and we will report whichever happens.

At the March event, AGL’s managing director and chief executive Damien Nicks connected the battery to the closure explicitly: “In April 2023 we closed Liddell Power Station after 50 years of operation... Three years on I am proud to stand here today, to celebrate the commissioning of the Liddell Battery as the first major development in our plans to repurpose this site... This battery will deliver important firming storage for the energy system which is increasingly needed as coal exits the market...”

The hub beyond the battery

AGL’s longer vision for the 10,000-hectare site is the Hunter Energy Hub, pitched around circular-economy lines: “the waste of one industry becomes the input of another.” Its contents are, so far, stated at two levels of firmness that should not be blurred. The hub page names three potential partners AGL is “exploring” at memorandum-of-understanding stage: Renewable Metals (battery recycling), SunDrive (solar panel manufacturing) and Elecsome (panel recycling and cable manufacturing), and names the Muswellbrook Pumped Hydro project among future power sources. The March 2026 release describes the future mix more broadly as “materials recovery and recycling, low carbon fuels and data centres.” Both lists are AGL’s, published at different times; neither is a committed development yet, and we report them as intentions, not outcomes.

Meanwhile the firmest piece of AGL’s Hunter storage program after Liddell is not on the Liddell site at all. In July 2025 the company took a final investment decision on the Tomago Battery near Newcastle: another 500 MW, but with four hours’ duration, roughly $800 million, Fluence again, targeting operations in late 2027. Nicks said the decision came with “a clear pathway to FID for a further 900 MW of grid scale battery projects.” Between Liddell, Tomago and Origin’s build at Eraring, the Hunter is now hosting three of the largest battery projects in the country, on the sites and doorsteps of its coal fleet.