Why EV charging and BESS HVAC is unique
Battery energy storage and high-power EV charging share a thermal profile that no other industrial sector replicates. Lithium-ion cells are exquisitely sensitive to temperature — performance degrades above 35 degrees Celsius, calendar life drops sharply above 45 degrees, and thermal runaway becomes a credible failure mode above 80 to 90 degrees depending on chemistry. The HVAC system protecting these cells is not a comfort load. It is a safety system, a performance-protection system, and an asset-life-extension system in the same envelope.
Three characteristics make EV charging and BESS HVAC distinct from data centres, manufacturing, or commercial buildings. First, the thermal load is dominated by extreme heat from high-power electronics — a 350 kW DC fast charger or a 4 MWh container BESS dissipates concentrated heat in a small footprint, with conversion efficiencies in the 94 to 97 percent range still leaving 5 to 15 kW (charger) or 100 to 200 kW (container BESS) of heat to remove. Second, lithium thermal runaway risk introduces fire-code requirements that cascade into the HVAC design — NFPA 855 Chapter 9 explosion control, NFPA 855 Chapter 14 lithium-ion specifics, UL 9540A test results dictating separation distances, and a rapid shutdown logic on gas detection that does not exist in conventional HVAC. Third, the load profile is genuinely 24/7 with peak demand spikes during charging events, which makes free cooling, dehumidification scheduling and overnight thermal harvest economically significant over a 20-year asset life.
Australian BESS and EV charging deployment over the last five years has compressed every one of these specification cycles. Hornsdale Power Reserve was delivered in approximately 100 days. Victorian Big Battery in roughly 12 months. Waratah Super Battery is being staged at 850 MW with phases coming online in tight succession. The federal Capacity Investment Scheme has put more than 50 BESS projects into the pipeline, and the National Electric Highway is rolling out hundreds of fast-charging hubs along the federal-funded corridor network. HVAC duct fabricators who can deliver complete ductwork packages in 8 to 14 weeks are the ones the engineering procurement contractors are calling. SBKJ machines are running in those facilities. This guide is how we specify them.
EV charging facility types and their HVAC implications
EV charging is not one facility type — it is six, each with a different thermal load, occupancy profile and ductwork specification. Confusing the categories at quotation stage is the most common scope error we see in Australian EV procurement.
Highway fast-charging hub
The headline category. 350 kW or higher per stall, 10 to 20 stalls per site, deployed along the National Electric Highway corridor and on East Coast highways under contracts with ChargeFox (NRMA partnership with the Federal Government, 5,000-plus chargers planned), Tesla Supercharger (V3 and V4), Evie Networks (St Baker Energy Innovation, 350 kW ultra-rapid network), Ampol AmpCharge (petrol station fast-charging conversion), and BP Pulse Australia. A typical highway hub has an electrical equipment building housing transformers and switchgear, a control room, a customer waiting area with toilets and vending, and increasingly a co-located retail or food offer. HVAC duct scope is the equipment building (high thermal load, secondary cooling beyond the chargers' internal liquid cooling), the control room (low load, high uptime), and the waiting area (comfort cooling and ventilation to AS 1668.2).
Urban DC charger
50 to 150 kW per stall, single-vehicle or 2 to 4 stall configurations, retrofit into petrol stations, supermarket car parks, shopping centre underground decks, and stand-alone forecourts. JOLT operates urban free-charging via advertising support. The HVAC scope is typically a small switchroom, a transformer room, and any co-located retail. Smaller per-site ductwork than highway hubs but high frequency of deployment — 100-plus sites per network rollout.
Workplace AC charging
7 to 22 kW per stall, scalable across a car park or warehouse loading area. Heat load per charger is much lower than DC hubs, but the cumulative load across 50 to 200 stalls in a major workplace requires dedicated switchroom HVAC. Many workplace deployments use a central transformer feeding a smart-charging controller, which becomes the high-load room.
Depot and fleet charging
The fastest-growing category in 2026. Truck and bus charging at 350 to 1,000 kW DC, deployed at logistics depots, public transport interchanges, and mining haul-truck facilities. The HVAC scope is significant — high-load equipment buildings, large switchgear rooms, driver waiting facilities, and increasingly co-located workshop and maintenance bays. Depot charging frequently includes co-located BESS to flatten the grid demand profile, doubling the HVAC scope on a single site.
Retail and mall trickle charging
3 to 22 kW per stall, often 50 to 200 stalls across a large shopping precinct. Low per-charger thermal load but the centralised electrical infrastructure (smart panels, distribution transformers) requires dedicated HVAC. Retail HVAC integration typically piggybacks on the host building plant where possible.
Home and residential charging
Out of scope for industrial duct fabrication, but worth noting because Australian residential EV uptake is driving the workplace and retail rollout. Home chargers are 7 to 22 kW single-phase or three-phase wall units with no separate HVAC requirement.
BESS facility types and their HVAC implications
Battery energy storage spans six orders of magnitude in capacity, from 5 kWh residential units to 1 GWh-plus utility projects. The HVAC scope changes character at each scale.
Utility-scale BESS
100 MW and above grid storage. The Australian flagships in operation as of 2026 include Hornsdale Power Reserve (Tesla Megapack and Powerpack, 150 MW expanded from the original 100 MW), Victorian Big Battery (Neoen, 300 MW), Waratah Super Battery in NSW (Akaysha Energy, 850 MW staged), Eraring BESS in NSW (Origin Energy, 700 MW phase 1), Capital Battery in NSW (multiple operators), and Western Sydney Battery (Akaysha). The Capacity Investment Scheme has put more than 50 additional projects into the federal-supported pipeline. HVAC scope at utility-scale is dominated by the substation, control room, and any walk-in switchgear buildings — the BESS containers themselves arrive with integrated thermal management from the OEM.
Industrial behind-the-meter BESS
Commercial-industrial customers using BESS for peak shaving and demand-charge reduction. Capacities from 500 kWh to 30 MWh on a single site. HVAC scope is the integration point with the host facility — transformers, switchgear, and any new control room. Common in heavy industry, mining, food processing, and increasingly data centres.
Commercial behind-the-meter BESS
Office buildings, shopping centres, hospitals, and large commercial real estate. 100 kWh to 5 MWh per site. The HVAC scope is typically a small dedicated battery room with separate ventilation independent of the host building plant.
Residential BESS
Tesla Powerwall scale, 10 to 30 kWh per home. Out of scope for industrial duct fabrication but driving the AS/NZS 5139:2019 standard that influences the larger commercial designs.
Microgrid integration
BESS combined with solar photovoltaic and sometimes diesel backup, serving remote communities, mine sites, defence facilities, and island communities. HVAC scope is the integrated control building that ties the assets together.
EV charging hub co-located storage
The fastest-growing subcategory. BESS deployed at fast-charging hubs to flatten the grid connection requirement and enable charging at sites with constrained network capacity. The HVAC scope effectively combines highway hub building HVAC with BESS substation HVAC on a single site — a complex coordination project for the duct fabricator and the engineering procurement contractor.
The Australian EV charging market in 2026
Australia's EV charging infrastructure has scaled from a few hundred public chargers in 2020 to more than 5,000 high-power public chargers in operation by mid-2026, with several thousand more under construction or in approvals. Six operators dominate the public-facing network.
ChargeFox operates Australia's largest open-network ultra-rapid charging system, with NRMA as the majority shareholder and a partnership with the Federal Government on the National Electric Highway. ChargeFox sites typically deploy 350 kW chargers in 6 to 12 stall configurations along the East Coast and across Tasmania. The federal-funded plan calls for 5,000-plus chargers across the highway network.
Tesla Supercharger Australia operates V3 chargers (up to 250 kW) and V4 chargers (up to 350 kW with potential for higher) at sites along the East Coast, in major capital cities, and increasingly opened to non-Tesla vehicles via the Magic Dock and CCS-compatible V4 cabinets.
Evie Networks, owned by St Baker Energy Innovation, operates a 350 kW ultra-rapid network with a focus on highway corridors and large urban hubs. Evie sites are commonly 6 to 12 stalls with full canopy coverage and significant electrical equipment building footprint.
Ampol AmpCharge is converting Ampol's existing petrol-station footprint into fast-charging sites, with a target of more than 100 sites by 2027. The retrofit pattern means HVAC scope often piggybacks on existing forecourt buildings with significant retrofit work for the new electrical equipment building.
BP Pulse Australia runs a similar petrol-station retrofit pattern through BP's network.
JOLT deploys urban free-charging units supported by advertising on the integrated displays. Different scale and HVAC profile from the highway operators — JOLT sites are typically single-stall street-edge installations with minimal ancillary HVAC.
Across all six operators the federal Driving the Nation Fund, state-level rebates (NSW Electric Vehicle Strategy, Victoria's Zero Emissions Vehicle Roadmap, Queensland Zero Emission Vehicle Strategy) and grid connection approvals dictate the deployment pace. HVAC duct fabricators who understand which operator they are supplying through which engineering procurement contractor get the early visibility on lead-time and material specification.
The Australian BESS market in 2026
Utility-scale battery energy storage in Australia has scaled faster than any comparable jurisdiction. The pipeline by mid-2026 exceeds 30 GWh of announced capacity, with the Capacity Investment Scheme providing federal underwriting for the largest projects.
Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia was the original "Big Battery" — 100 MW Tesla Powerpack delivered in approximately 100 days during 2017, expanded to 150 MW in 2020. Hornsdale established the Australian template for fast deployment, financial structuring through a private operator (Neoen), and operational integration with the National Electricity Market. Hornsdale's HVAC architecture set the early Australian convention: container BESS with OEM-integrated thermal management, separate substation building, separate control room.
Victorian Big Battery at 300 MW (Neoen, Tesla Megapack) commissioned in 2021 and remains one of the largest grid-scale BESS in operation globally. The substation footprint is significant and the surrounding HVAC scope reflects the higher capacity.
Waratah Super Battery in NSW is being delivered by Akaysha Energy at 850 MW staged across multiple phases. The project supplies system services to the NSW grid and is one of several NSW projects supporting the coal-fired Eraring closure.
Eraring BESS in NSW (Origin Energy) is being delivered at 700 MW for phase 1, co-located with the closing Eraring Power Station. The site reuses the existing transmission infrastructure and is a model for coal-to-BESS conversion.
Capital Battery at Williamsdale in NSW is operated by multiple parties and is one of several mid-scale ACT and NSW projects supplying ACT 100 percent renewable target obligations.
Western Sydney Battery (Akaysha) and the broader Akaysha portfolio, alongside Neoen, AGL, Origin, EnergyAustralia, Iberdrola Australia, Squadron Energy, Tilt Renewables, RWE and emerging developers, fill out the operating fleet and pipeline.
Beyond these flagship projects the Capacity Investment Scheme has placed more than 50 BESS projects under federal contract for difference support, with the AEMO Integrated System Plan calling for tens of GWh of storage by 2030. EV charging hub co-located storage adds another 50-plus mid-scale projects to the pipeline. For HVAC duct fabricators the implication is straightforward — Australian BESS HVAC scope is the largest single industrial duct opportunity in the country across the next decade, and it requires fabricators who understand the compressed timeline, the safety-critical specification, and the coordination with BESS OEM container deliveries.
Standards: NFPA 855, AS/NZS 5139, AS 1668.2 and the supporting framework
The standards landscape for BESS HVAC is denser than most industrial sectors because the safety-critical nature of lithium-ion thermal events has driven rapid standards development across multiple jurisdictions. The dominant framework an Australian project applies is a hybrid of NFPA 855 (reference for utility-scale and commercial), AS/NZS 5139:2019 (residential and small commercial), AS 1668.2 (mechanical ventilation), AS 3000 (electrical), and the project-specific fire engineering report.
NFPA 855 — Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems
NFPA 855 is the United States standard published by the National Fire Protection Association. It is widely referenced in Australian BESS specifications because it provides the most detailed code framework for lithium-ion BESS in operation today. The HVAC-relevant chapters are:
- Chapter 4 — Equipment design. Sets requirements for explosion control, deflagration vents and ventilation pathways. Cross-references UL 9540A test results to determine separation distances and ventilation rates.
- Chapter 9 — Explosion control. Specifies requirements for deflagration vent panels, explosion prevention systems and gas detection. The HVAC ductwork must not block deflagration pathways and must include ventilation rates that prevent flammable gas accumulation.
- Chapter 14 — Lithium-ion specifics. Covers gas detection (HF, CO, CO2, LEL), HVAC shutdown logic on gas detection, fire suppression interlocks, and lithium-specific separation distances. The most operationally important chapter for HVAC engineers.
For the duct fabricator NFPA 855 dictates that ductwork penetrations through fire-rated walls must be fire-rated and that smoke dampers at zone boundaries are mandatory at most utility-scale BESS sites. The duct material itself is conventional galvanised G90 in most cases, but the smoke management coordination with the fire engineer is the high-leverage specification step.
UL 9540A — Test method for evaluating thermal runaway propagation
UL 9540A is the test standard that determines how a battery system performs under thermal abuse. The test results dictate separation distances, ventilation rates and explosion control measures under NFPA 855. A BESS that passes UL 9540A with limited thermal propagation can be installed with smaller separation distances and reduced HVAC mitigation. A BESS that propagates aggressively requires more aggressive HVAC and separation. The duct fabricator does not run UL 9540A — the BESS OEM does — but the test results flow through to the project HVAC specification.
IEC 62933 — Electrical energy storage systems
IEC 62933 is the international standard series covering electrical energy storage system requirements. Parts 5-2 and 5-3 cover safety requirements for grid-connected BESS and are commonly referenced in Australian utility-scale projects.
AS/NZS 5139:2019 — Battery storage equipment
AS/NZS 5139:2019 covers battery storage equipment up to 200 kWh, applying primarily to residential and small commercial BESS. Section 5.4 references ventilation requirements, Section 6 covers mounting and installation, and Section 9 covers fire safety. For utility-scale projects the standard is supplementary — the dominant framework is NFPA 855 plus AS 1668.2 plus the project fire engineering report — but for behind-the-meter commercial BESS up to 200 kWh AS/NZS 5139 is the primary code reference.
AS 1668.2 — Mechanical ventilation in buildings
AS 1668.2 is the Australian Standard governing mechanical ventilation in buildings. It applies to all the surrounding facility HVAC at BESS and EV charging sites — control rooms, electrical equipment buildings, substations, switchrooms, and any waiting areas. The duct fabricator works to AS 1668.2 ventilation rates and AS/NZS 4254 duct construction tolerances.
AS 3000 — Electrical installations
AS 3000 covers electrical installations including the cabling, switchgear and protection systems in BESS and EV charging sites. The HVAC interface is at the cable tray, switchroom layout and any interlocks between fire detection and HVAC shutdown.
Thermal management of high-power EV chargers
A 350 kW DC ultra-rapid charger dissipates 5 to 15 kW of heat at peak load, depending on conversion efficiency in the 94 to 96 percent range. The charger itself uses internal liquid cooling — typically a closed-loop glycol system with a top-mounted heat exchanger or a chilled water connection from a central plant. This internal cooling is supplied with the charger by the OEM (ABB Terra HP, Tritium PKM, Kempower, Hyundai HD, Wallbox Supernova, Delta) and is not the duct fabricator's scope.
What is the duct fabricator's scope is the surrounding electrical equipment building and the charger pad itself. A 10-stall hub at 350 kW per stall has 50 to 150 kW of charger waste heat plus transformer losses (1 to 2 percent on a 3 to 5 MVA transformer is 30 to 100 kW), plus switchgear losses, plus solar gain through the building envelope. The total cooling load on the equipment building is commonly 100 to 250 kW for a typical highway hub.
Charger pad cooling for outdoor installations is becoming more common as charger power increases. Pad cooling can be passive (light-coloured concrete, shaded canopy, planned air movement) or active (integrated pad ducting, supplementary canopy ventilation). For sites with 350 kW or higher chargers in the Australian summer climate — particularly inland NSW, Queensland, the Northern Territory, and outback WA — active pad cooling reduces charger derating and extends component life.
Waiting area HVAC is conventional commercial comfort cooling sized to the occupancy of the customer-facing facility. AS 1668.2 ventilation rates apply to the toilets, vending and any food retail. The duct material is galvanised G90 in most cases, with 316L stainless considered for coastal sites.
BESS thermal management strategies
Container BESS thermal management has evolved rapidly across three generations of design.
Generation 1 — Air-cooled cells
Early container BESS used air-cooled lithium iron phosphate (LFP) or nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) cells with banks of fans circulating ambient air across the cell modules. Heat extraction was modest (2 to 3 W per cell), cell temperature variation across the container was substantial, and HVAC capacity per 1 MWh container was 30 to 50 kW. Air-cooled containers are still in service across older Australian projects but are out of favour for new builds.
Generation 2 — Liquid-cooled cells with central HVAC
The current mainstream architecture. Cells are cooled by liquid (glycol or dielectric fluid) circulating through cold plates between cell layers, with the heat rejected via a central HVAC unit per container. Tesla Megapack 2, current Sungrow ST-series, Fluence Gridstack Pro, Wartsila Quantum, and Powin Centipede all use variants of this architecture. HVAC capacity per 1 MWh is 12 to 25 kW — substantially less than air-cooled — because liquid cooling is far more thermally efficient.
Generation 3 — Liquid-cooled cells with immersion or high-density designs
Emerging in 2025-2026. Higher cell energy density (4 MWh per 20-foot container is now common) with more aggressive liquid cooling architectures including direct immersion and integrated heat pumps. Tesla Megapack 3 and the latest GE Vernova, Hyundai HD, and Honeywell offerings push this generation forward.
The HVAC implication for the duct fabricator is consistent across generations. Container BESS HVAC is supplied integrated with the BESS container by the OEM. The duct fabricator's scope is the surrounding facility HVAC: control room, substation, electrical equipment building, switchroom, and any walk-in workshop. Trying to substitute non-OEM HVAC into a BESS container is technically and commercially impossible — the thermal management is engineering-tied to the cell chemistry, the battery management system, and the warranty conditions.
Some sites use exterior cooling towers or dry coolers as a heat sink for the container HVAC condensers, particularly in inland Australian locations where dry-bulb temperatures regularly exceed 40 degrees Celsius. The cooling tower or dry cooler is connected to the container HVAC by glycol piping, not air ducting, so the duct fabricator scope is unaffected.
Lithium thermal runaway management — the HVAC implications
Lithium-ion thermal runaway is the failure mode that drives most of the safety-critical specification in BESS HVAC. A cell that goes into thermal runaway can release flammable gases (hydrogen, methane, ethylene, carbon monoxide, hydrogen fluoride) at concentrations that exceed the lower explosive limit within minutes. NFPA 855 Chapter 14 sets out the engineering response.
Gas and smoke detection
Hydrogen fluoride, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and lower-explosive-limit (LEL) sensors are positioned at the high points of the BESS room or container — gases stratify upward as they heat. Sensor placement is engineered with the BESS OEM and the fire engineer. The HVAC implication is that the sensors trigger HVAC shutdown logic.
Rapid HVAC shutdown logic
On a confirmed gas detection event the HVAC shuts down rapidly to prevent flammable gas being circulated through the building or distributed via the ventilation system. The shutdown logic is wired through a safety relay with mechanical latching — once tripped, the HVAC requires manual reset. NFPA 855 specifies the timing requirements; the project fire engineering report sets the specific shutdown time.
Fire-rated separation
Container BESS units are typically separated by 3-metre setbacks with fire-rated barriers between containers. The HVAC ductwork between containers (when present) must be fire-rated at the penetrations and must not bypass the separation. Smoke dampers at zone boundaries close on fire detection.
Explosion deflagration vents
Container BESS units include deflagration vent panels engineered to release pressure during a thermal runaway event. These vents must not be blocked by HVAC ductwork or supplementary structures. The duct fabricator's site coordination with the BESS OEM container plan is the high-leverage step.
Smoke management
For BESS housed in buildings (commercial behind-the-meter, microgrid, EV hub co-located storage), smoke management ductwork extracts combustion products during a thermal event. The smoke exhaust ductwork is typically aluminised steel or a similar high-temperature material to handle the elevated temperatures during emergency operation.
Container BESS HVAC architecture
Container BESS HVAC follows a standard architecture across most modern OEMs. A dedicated air handling unit per container provides cooling to the cells via either direct air circulation (older designs) or via the cell-mounted liquid cooling loops (modern designs). Supply air enters at one end of the container and return air exits at the opposite end, maintaining a 10 to 25 degree Celsius cell temperature setpoint depending on chemistry and operating mode.
Condensate management is a frequently overlooked detail. In humid Australian climates (Queensland, Northern Territory, summer humidity in Sydney and Brisbane), the dedicated AHU condenses moisture from the supply airstream. The condensate must be drained without water ingress into the cell modules or the electrical assemblies. Condensate trays, traps and gravity drainage to a sealed catchment are standard.
Filter changes, condensate inspections and HVAC component servicing are typically scheduled at 6-month intervals, coordinated with the BESS operator's planned maintenance shutdowns. Some OEMs are moving to predictive maintenance based on AHU run-time, ambient conditions and filter pressure drop telemetry.
EV charging hub building HVAC architecture
EV charging hubs split into four HVAC zones, each with a different load profile, ventilation rate, and operating schedule.
Control room
The brain of the hub. Houses the site controller, network communications equipment, security monitoring, and any BESS controller for co-located storage. Low thermal load (typically 5 to 15 kW), high uptime requirement (mission-critical), conventional commercial comfort cooling sized for 24/7 operation. Duct material is galvanised G90 in most cases.
Electrical equipment building
The high-load zone. Houses transformers (3 to 10 MVA for a typical highway hub), main switchgear, protection relays, and any chargers' dedicated rectifiers if not integrated into the dispenser cabinets. Thermal load is dominated by transformer losses (1 to 2 percent of transformer rating) and switchgear losses. AS 1668.2 ventilation rates apply, with elevated rates if the room contains arc-flash-vulnerable equipment.
Customer waiting area
Comfort cooling for users while their vehicles charge. 5 to 15 minutes per session at a 350 kW hub, longer at slower chargers. Includes toilets, vending, optional food retail, and increasingly mobile office or co-working facilities. Ventilation to AS 1668.2, comfort cooling to commercial standard, often integrated with adjacent retail.
Co-located retail and food
The growth area. Hubs increasingly include McDonald's, Subway, OTR, Starbucks or 7-Eleven outlets co-located on the site. Retail HVAC is usually a separate scope to the fast-charging operator's HVAC, but the duct fabricator may supply both packages on a single site.
BESS substation HVAC architecture
BESS substations house the high-voltage equipment that interconnects the BESS to the transmission or distribution grid. The HVAC scope covers the high-voltage equipment building, transformer cooling, and the control room.
High-voltage equipment building
Houses the main transformer, GIS or AIS switchgear, and protection systems. Thermal load is dominated by transformer losses (typically 0.3 to 0.5 percent of MVA rating for modern utility transformers, so 300 to 500 kW for a 100 MVA transformer in a large BESS substation). Ventilation is forced supply with high air-change rates, using either packaged HVAC or evaporative cooling depending on site climate.
Transformer cooling
Large transformers are cooled by ONAF or OFAF (Oil Natural Air Forced or Oil Forced Air Forced) systems with radiators and fans. The HVAC duct fabricator scope does not extend to transformer radiators (a separate trade), but does extend to the fresh-air supply and exhaust ducting in the transformer enclosure.
Control room
Houses the substation control system, protection relays, SCADA equipment and operator workstations. Conventional commercial comfort cooling, 24/7 operation, often N+1 redundancy on the HVAC plant.
Material selection for EV charging and BESS HVAC ductwork
Three materials cover most duct specifications across Australian EV and BESS sites.
Galvanised G90 (Z275 to AS/NZS 4254)
The baseline. Used for general HVAC ductwork in BESS control rooms, substations, EV hub equipment buildings and waiting areas. AS/NZS 4254:2012 governs the construction tolerances; G90 (zinc coating 275 g/m2 total both sides) is the corrosion-rated specification for inland Australian sites and most commercial applications. Cost-effective, well-understood, fabricated efficiently on the SBAL-V auto duct line.
316L stainless steel to AS 1528
Specified for coastal sites — particularly East Coast highway BESS along NSW and Queensland (within 5 km of the marine atmosphere), South Australian coastal sites, and the National Electric Highway corridor where it parallels the coast. 316L resists chloride-induced corrosion and extends the duct asset life from 15 to 20 years (galvanised on coast) to 30 to 40 years (316L on coast). Higher material cost (typically 4 to 6 times galvanised) is justified by the corrosion resistance.
Aluminised steel
Specified for high-temperature exhaust ductwork during emergency smoke management. Aluminised steel (Type 1 or Type 2 to ASTM A463) handles continuous service at 600 to 800 degrees Celsius and is the standard material for smoke exhaust paths from BESS rooms and EV hub equipment buildings during a thermal event.
Specialty materials — when they are specified
Some projects specify duplex stainless (2205) for the most aggressive coastal environments, 304 stainless as an intermediate option, or fibre-reinforced polymer for chemically aggressive exhaust. These are project-by-project specifications driven by the fire engineer or the corrosion engineer.
SBAL-V auto duct lines fabricate galvanised G90, 316L stainless and aluminised steel in the same machine envelope without tooling changeover. SBTF spiral tubeformer machines run all three materials for round duct from 80 mm to 1,500 mm diameter. Both machines are exported to engineering procurement contractors and ductwork fabricators serving the EV and BESS sectors globally.
Energy efficiency and operating cost optimisation
BESS and EV charging are 24/7 assets with 20-year life expectancies. The HVAC operating cost over the life of the asset typically exceeds the capital cost of the HVAC system by a factor of 5 to 10. Three energy-efficiency strategies are economically significant.
Heat recovery from BESS cooling to other site loads
Rare in Australian deployments to date but emerging at sites with co-located thermal loads — for example a BESS at a logistics depot with an adjacent workshop heating requirement, or a co-located EV hub with food retail requiring hot water. Heat recovery from the BESS condenser circuit into the adjacent thermal load can reduce gas consumption by 30 to 60 percent at modest capital cost.
Free cooling overnight for battery cells
Australian climate enables free cooling for 4,000 to 6,000 hours per year on most BESS sites — when the ambient dry-bulb temperature is below the cell setpoint, the HVAC plant runs on outside air alone without compressor operation. Modern liquid-cooled BESS containers have sophisticated free-cooling logic built into the OEM HVAC. The surrounding facility HVAC (control room, substation) can also exploit free cooling with appropriately specified economiser dampers and controls. The duct fabricator's contribution is to specify economiser-friendly duct routing and damper provision at quotation stage.
Dehumidification only during humid periods
Lithium cells perform best at 30 to 60 percent relative humidity. Excessive dehumidification wastes energy without commensurate cell performance benefit. Modern BESS HVAC controls modulate dehumidification by ambient conditions rather than running continuously. The surrounding facility HVAC follows the same logic — dehumidification is scheduled by season and location rather than running 24/7. Coastal Queensland and Northern Territory sites run dehumidification more aggressively than Tasmania or southern Victoria.
Major Australian EV charging deployments and the federal programme
Federal funding through the Driving the Nation Fund and the Capacity Investment Scheme (the federal contract-for-difference programme) underwrites most large-scale EV charging and BESS deployment in Australia. The principal programmes are:
National Electric Highway
Federal-funded rollout of fast-charging infrastructure along the highway network, with ChargeFox as the principal partner. The programme targets 5,000-plus chargers across the highway network with sites every 100 to 200 km along all major routes. EV hub HVAC scope at each site is consistent with the descriptions above — equipment building, control room, waiting area, often with co-located retail or food.
Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS)
The federal CIS provides contract-for-difference support for BESS and renewable generation projects that would otherwise be exposed to merchant market risk. More than 50 BESS projects have been awarded support to date with several large rounds remaining. CIS-supported BESS projects deploy on a compressed 6 to 12 month FID-to-commissioning timeline, putting significant pressure on HVAC duct fabricators to deliver complete packages in 8 to 14 weeks of release.
State-level rebates and strategies
NSW EV Strategy (2021-2030), Victoria Zero Emissions Vehicle Roadmap, Queensland Zero Emission Vehicle Strategy and similar state programmes provide top-up funding for EV charging deployment alongside the federal programmes. The state programmes also drive workplace and retail charging through grant funding and planning incentives.
Major BESS technology partners deployed in Australia
Australian utility-scale BESS deployment uses a relatively concentrated set of OEM technologies. The dominant partners as of 2026 are:
- Tesla Megapack — the most-deployed utility BESS in Australia. Hornsdale, Victorian Big Battery, and many CIS-supported projects. Megapack 2 and Megapack 3 generations.
- Wartsila Quantum — Finnish-engineered modular BESS deployed at multiple Australian projects including under-construction CIS sites.
- Fluence (Siemens-AES joint venture) — Gridstack and Gridstack Pro deployed at multiple Australian projects including Gannawarra and Bouldercombe.
- Sungrow — significant deployment across mid-scale Australian BESS, particularly Akaysha-developed sites.
- Hyundai HD — emerging in the Australian market with several pipeline deployments.
- Powin — Centipede deployed at multiple sites, including Australian and US precedents.
- Honeywell — Ionic series in selected commercial and utility deployments.
- GE Vernova — Reservoir series in selected projects.
The HVAC implication for the duct fabricator is that the OEM-supplied container HVAC is engineering-tied to the cell chemistry and is not substitutable. The duct fabricator's scope is the surrounding facility HVAC and the coordination of the duct interface to the OEM-supplied containers. Engineering procurement contractors managing CIS-supported projects are responsible for the integration, and the duct fabricator's role is to deliver to the EPC's specification on time.
Emerging technologies and the next decade
Three emerging technology categories are reshaping the EV and BESS HVAC scope through the late 2020s.
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G)
EVs feeding power back to the grid during peak demand events. V2G adds bidirectional charger requirements and modestly increases the heat dissipation per stall. The HVAC scope at hubs supporting V2G is incrementally larger but architecturally the same.
Battery swap stations
Heavy-vehicle battery swap (truck and bus) is being trialled in Australian mining and logistics. Battery swap stations have a significant HVAC requirement for the battery storage carousel, the swap robotic equipment, and any conditioning bays. The HVAC scope per station is closer to a small BESS facility than a charging hub.
Solid-state battery deployment
Solid-state batteries promise higher energy density, lower thermal management requirements, and reduced thermal runaway risk. Commercial deployment in stationary BESS is expected from 2028 onwards. The HVAC implication is reduced cooling load per MWh — possibly 30 to 50 percent reduction over current liquid-cooled lithium-ion — but the surrounding facility HVAC scope is largely unchanged.
Materials handling and decommissioning logistics
BESS site logistics are dominated by container delivery via heavy haul. A 20-foot container BESS weighs 30 to 45 tonnes loaded with cells. A 40-foot container is 50 to 70 tonnes. Site access for heavy haul, hardstand for crane operations, and lay-down areas during commissioning are coordinated months in advance. The duct fabricator's role is to deliver ductwork in coordination with the container delivery sequence — typically the building shell goes up first, then the container BESS is delivered and set down, then the connecting ductwork is installed, then the building HVAC is commissioned.
Decommissioning planning is an emerging requirement. BESS containers have a 15 to 20 year operational life, with cell replacement common at the 10 to 15 year point. Ductwork in the surrounding facility typically lasts the full 20-year life with periodic gasket and damper replacement. Galvanised G90 ductwork in coastal environments may require replacement at the 15-year point; 316L stainless typically lasts the full life and beyond.
SBKJ machinery scope for EV charging and BESS projects
SBKJ Group's role in Australian EV and BESS projects is supplying the HVAC duct fabrication machinery to engineering procurement contractors and ductwork fabricators delivering the surrounding facility HVAC. The container BESS HVAC is supplied integrated with the BESS container by the OEM and is not the duct fabricator's scope. The surrounding facility HVAC — control rooms, substations, electrical equipment buildings, switchrooms, EV hub waiting areas, and any co-located retail or food — is fabricated locally to AS/NZS 4254 tolerances on machines that include:
- SBAL-V auto duct line — rectangular ductwork from 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm thickness in galvanised G90, 316L stainless and aluminised steel. Single-shift output 40 to 60 metres of finished duct per hour. Siemens or Mitsubishi PLC standard. Suited to the rectangular HVAC ductwork dominant in BESS substations and EV hub equipment buildings.
- SBTF spiral tubeformer — round ductwork from 80 mm to 1,500 mm diameter in galvanised G90, 316L stainless and aluminised steel. Continuous spiral-formed seam for low leakage. Suited to the round duct ventilation runs typical of waiting areas, food retail co-location, and any compressed-air or process exhaust scope.
Both machines are exported globally from the SBKJ Australian headquarters in Box Hill North VIC with CIF, CFR or DDP commercial terms, full Factory Acceptance Test documentation, and 1 to 2 SBKJ engineers on site for installation and commissioning. The 47-point procurement checklist used by SBKJ engineers when first-time buyers ask what to verify before signing any HVAC duct machinery purchase order is published in the related HVAC Duct Machine Buyer's Checklist.
Construction phasing for BESS and EV charging projects
Project deployment timelines compress the duct fabrication and delivery window in ways that conventional construction does not.
BESS deployment
Final investment decision to commissioning is typically 6 to 12 months for an Australian utility-scale BESS. Hornsdale Power Reserve was delivered in approximately 100 days. The compressed timeline pushes the HVAC duct package forward in the construction sequence. Duct fabricators are commonly expected to deliver complete ductwork for the control building, substation and switchroom within 8 to 14 weeks of release. The duct machine fabrication capacity at the EPC's preferred fabricator becomes a constraint on project delivery.
EV charging hub deployment
Final investment decision to commissioning is typically 9 to 15 months for a highway charging hub, slightly slower than BESS because of grid connection approvals, civil works for the charger pad, retail co-location coordination, and customer-facing facility fit-out. The duct package is typically released at month 4 to 6 with delivery required at month 8 to 12.
Co-located EV plus BESS
Co-located projects typically follow the EV hub timeline, with the BESS sequenced as a sub-project within the main hub deployment. The HVAC scope effectively combines hub building HVAC with BESS substation HVAC on a single site, doubling the duct fabricator's package size.
FAQ
Does NFPA 855 apply to BESS facilities in Australia?
NFPA 855 is the United States standard but is widely referenced in Australian BESS specifications because AS/NZS 5139 covers battery storage equipment up to 200 kWh and most utility-scale BESS projects in Australia (Hornsdale 150 MW, Victorian Big Battery 300 MW, Waratah Super Battery 850 MW, Eraring 700 MW) reference NFPA 855 Chapter 9 for explosion control and Chapter 14 for lithium-ion specific requirements. The HVAC implications include rapid shutdown logic on gas detection, fire-rated separation between containers, and ventilation rates that prevent flammable gas accumulation.
Is HVAC for a container BESS fabricated locally or supplied with the container?
Container BESS HVAC is almost always supplied integrated with the BESS container by the OEM (Tesla Megapack, Sungrow, Fluence, Wartsila, Powin, GE Vernova, Hyundai HD). The thermal management is engineering-tied to the cell chemistry and cannot be substituted post-delivery. SBKJ machinery scope is the surrounding facility HVAC: control room, electrical equipment building, substation, EV charging hub waiting areas, retail co-location and any locally constructed switchroom.
What HVAC heat load does a 350 kW EV fast charger produce?
A 350 kW DC ultra-rapid charger (typical of Evie Networks, Tesla Supercharger V3 and V4, ChargeFox, Ampol AmpCharge sites) dissipates 5 to 15 kW of heat at peak load, depending on conversion efficiency (typically 94 to 96 percent). The charger itself uses internal liquid cooling, but the surrounding electrical equipment building and the charger pad require ambient HVAC and dehumidification. A 10-stall hub with 350 kW chargers can require 100 to 250 kW of supplementary cooling capacity for the equipment building and waiting area combined.
What materials should ductwork in a BESS facility specify?
Galvanised G90 (Z275) is the baseline for general HVAC ductwork in BESS control rooms and substations. 316L stainless steel is required for coastal sites — particularly highway BESS along the East Coast (NSW, Queensland) and South Australian sites within 5 km of marine atmosphere. Aluminised steel is specified for high-temperature exhaust ducts that may handle smoke or vented gases during a thermal runaway event. SBAL-V auto duct lines fabricate galvanised G90 to AS/NZS 4254 and 316L stainless to AS 1528 in the same machine envelope.
What is the typical ventilation rate for a BESS container?
Typical ventilation rates for a 1 MWh container BESS are 12 to 30 kW of HVAC capacity per container, with ducted supply at one end and return at the opposite end to maintain a 10 to 25 degree C cell temperature setpoint. Modern liquid-cooled designs (Tesla Megapack 2 and 3, current-generation Sungrow, Fluence Gridstack, Wartsila Quantum) use far less ambient HVAC than older air-cooled designs, but the surrounding facility still requires ducted ventilation for control rooms, substations and any walk-in switchgear buildings.
How does AS/NZS 5139 affect HVAC duct specification?
AS/NZS 5139:2019 covers battery storage equipment up to 200 kWh and applies primarily to residential and small commercial BESS. Section 5.4 references ventilation requirements for battery installations, Section 6 covers mounting and installation, and Section 9 covers fire safety. For utility-scale BESS the dominant standards are NFPA 855 and IEC 62933, with AS 1668.2 governing mechanical ventilation of the surrounding building. SBKJ ductwork fabricated for BESS facilities aligns with AS 1668.2 ventilation rates and AS/NZS 4254 duct construction.
How fast is a typical Australian BESS deployment timeline?
Australian BESS deployment is typically 6 to 12 months from final investment decision to commissioning — significantly faster than thermal generation. Hornsdale Power Reserve was delivered in approximately 100 days. The compressed timeline pushes HVAC specification, fabrication and delivery forward in the construction sequence — duct manufacturers are often expected to deliver complete ductwork for the control building, substation and switchroom within 8 to 14 weeks of release. EV charging hub deployment is slightly slower at 9 to 15 months because of grid connection approvals and civil works for the charger pad.
Can SBKJ machines fabricate ductwork for both BESS and EV charging projects?
Yes. The SBAL-V auto duct line fabricates rectangular ductwork in galvanised G90, 316L stainless and aluminised steel up to 1.5 mm thickness — covering all common BESS and EV charging facility specifications. The SBTF spiral tubeformer produces round duct from 80 mm to 1,500 mm diameter for ventilation runs in control rooms and waiting areas. Both machines are exported globally from the SBKJ Australian headquarters with CIF, CFR or DDP terms and full Factory Acceptance Test documentation.
Talk to an SBKJ engineer about EV and BESS HVAC fabrication →
