One of Australia’s biggest energy retailers and generators has reported a significant dip in annual gas sales, as customer demand for the fossil fuel declines, and as battery storage eats into the generation share of utility-scale gas plants.
In its June quarterly report,Origin says that while electricity sales volumes increased over the 2025-26 financial year, albeit by just 1 per cent, gas volumes declined by 17 per cent over the same period.
Origin says the drop in gas sales was not unexpected, and follows the trend of large customers using less, and the diminishing share gas is playing in the electricity market, as big and small batteries step in to smooth and help meet peak demand.
Origin is playing its own part in the energy market’s rush to battery storage, with two large-scale projects in its own portfolio of assets and off take deals with another two big batteries.
In January, Origin marked the start of commercial operations of its 460 megawatt (MW), 1770 megawatt-hour stage 1 Eraring battery, in the shadow of the coal plant of the same name, in New South Wales.
