Just a modest forecast, an increase in demand of generation of around 4 TW of energy generation. Western Australia needs to find 10 TW of new generation within four years' time. Now, the West Australian grid today supplies 20 TW of generation, so you have to increase that generation by 50% within four years. If you look at what that really means in real terms, the largest wind farm in WA today is a place called Collgar. We would need to build 17 of them within that four-year timeframe. Or alternatively, if you look at just our stage one project, it's the equivalent of building 44 of those projects within that four-year timeframe, and the reason why I say four years and not the six years out to 2031 , everything in energy is always a 2-year look forward.
So everything at the moment's looking forward at 2027. So you're starting to see there is a big energy gap, which needs to be closed really very quickly. Especially when you look at Western Australia, in the last four years, there's only been one new renewable energy generation project added on the grid. That was the Cunderdin Project, and it highlights these projects are difficult to get up and do take time. But the key difference for us to make sure that we can hit that in that timeframe is, one, we have a connection on one of the strongest parts of the grids in Western Australia. That ETAC connection is completely done and locked away. And the other thing is revenue certainty. Without revenue certainty, you can't get debt financing away.
By getting that in place a month ago, we're now, in essence, ready to go on this project as we look to finalize debt in the coming months from here.
Thank you. Next question. Do you have an estimate of what you think reserve capacity will be next year?
Yeah, listen, the Benchmark Reserve Capacity Price forecast. It's due imminently on the way through. What I can say is the technology they had last year was a four-hour battery, and that resulted in the price being AUD 360,000, which we've locked away for five years now. So that's locked, loaded, guaranteed on the way through with the 88 credits that we were given for that AUD 32 million/ annum. On saying that, it will be a six-hour battery, is our understanding, when they do the technology. And on my own personal opinion, you'll probably find that the benchmark price will now begin with a four, around that AUD 400,000-AUD 420,000 dollar mark in terms of my estimations. But I think you'll find that price will come out in the next month or so.
It is imminently due on the way through. So it's important to ensure those benchmark prices continue to remain high to ensure that it continues to attract new energy generation and storage onto the Western Australian grid.
Thank you. Did the increase of battery size to six hours due to the increased minimum energy storage resource obligation duration impact the Waroona timeline or finances?
No, not really. Listen, the changes were made earlier in the year, so they increased the duration of the ESROD as referred to from a four-hour duration up to a six-hour duration. If we had kept the battery duration at the original four point seven five, we could have done so, but it would have meant then instead of receiving 100% of the capacity for the battery, we would have been discounted on the way through. So the company made a decision that we would increase the duration of the battery to at least six hours on the way through. It'll actually be a little bit longer than that as well, to ensure that we get 100% of the reserve capacity payments, which we've now completely locked in and locked away as well.
In terms of the financing, no, it didn't actually change the financing at all, but it did actually make us consider our CIS application. Now, I'm just gonna be careful what we say through here. It's obviously been made public, that we withdrew our CIS application on the way through. There was a number of reasons for that. I think ensuring that we got that five, the five-year lock-in for reserve capacity, that was obviously front and center of it, which does give us that revenue certainty which is required for debt financing, but the other one was the ESROD, so the ESROD, that we had done submission for with CIS was looking at a four-hour battery, but obviously that changed to six on the way through, so it, that was a key reason why we withdrew our CIS application.
But importantly, after speaking at length with the federal government, we were allowed to resubmit both for stage one with the CIS application as well as stage two as well. So those submissions have been done. That was done at the beginning of November, and we'll find out the results of that in March, April of next year.
Thank you. Just further to what you were talking about there, did the withdrawal of the CIS tender too impact, was there any impact in relation to the finances or business relationships?
No. Listen, we're the federal government. We're really supportive of the strategy they've got for CIS, and I think it is a great strategy overall as well. We continue to communicate with them all the way through, but it just felt like it was right for us to not continue on with that contract at that point in time, but they were very supportive for us to resubmit in the future as well. Now, there's no guarantee that we obviously get CIS again for stage one or a stage two, but dealing with the federal government through this whole process was a very good process, and we're understanding of what their requirements are on the way through as well, so yeah, I'll reiterate the federal government with the strategy they got to ensure that projects can get up by providing that revenue certainty.
It is a really good strategy on the way through, and I do believe that, with a little bit of luck, we're successful in the next round on the way through for that as well.
Thank you. Is the project still on schedule as per the project schedule within the latest DFS?
Yeah, so at the moment we're still on schedule. So we're targeting October two thousand and twenty-seven. That remains in place at the moment. Obviously, the key thing that we're working through now, which is already well underway, but we'll look to finalize throughout the first quarter of this year is obviously getting that debt financing in place for the project, to ensure we can meet those time requirements. At the moment, there's nothing massively on the critical path timeframe as we work through, but it is important that we get that debt financing finalized to ensure then we can fill that gap on the way through as well.
Thank you. And what are the company's priorities in 2026 ?
Obviously, front and center is finalizing the financing for the project. Listen, that stage one project at the moment is, as we've obviously already mentioned a number of times, it's essentially ready to go. We have all connections in place, permits, approvals, environmentals, everything for stage one is locked and loaded. It is all about now finalizing the financing, strategy for the project, and getting that locked away to ensure we can start building in earnest as quickly as we can. At the same time as that, however, we do have eyeballs on a stage two as well. There'll be more information which comes out regarding a stage two, throughout the first half of next year, and we are targeting for that stage two project to get that revenue certainty locked away, hopefully throughout the course of the first half of next year as well.
So there's a lot of work which is going on behind the scenes, to get that stage one and stage two project ready to go, which we'll obviously be looking to finalize throughout the course of this year.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time, so I'll hand back to Adam for closing remarks.
Listen, thanks very much again, Nathan, for the time today, and thanks everyone for tuning in. Again, I'd like to thank all existing shareholders for their continued support throughout the course of 2025 . As we look now, we'll complete this capital raising now, the AUD 10 million. It's, it's effectively all there. It's been very, well supported by a number of, existing shareholders. Once we get the cash in place for this, we'll be looking to obviously finalize that debt financing facility throughout the first half of next year and look to really get this project underway. This project is important not only for Frontier and our shareholders, but obviously for Western Australia as well.
Western Australia needs more energy on the grid as quickly as possible, and we believe we can be central as part of that strategy, not just for stage one, but for future expansion stages as well. As usual, always happy to take calls offline with any investors, to talk through any questions they may have. But thanks very much again.