Another NSW battery sent for independent review by interstate and long-distance objectors

Plans to develop a 200 megawatt, two-hour battery in New South Wales have been sent to the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) for assessment after attracting 61 objections, mostly from people living hundreds of kilometres away from the project – and 24 from different states entirely.

The Steel River Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), proposed for next to an existing substation in an industrial estate in Newcastle, is one of two big batteries being developed by network company Ausgrid, in its first foray into utility-scale energy storage.

The Newcastle-based BESS, along with a battery of the same capacity and storage duration proposed for Homebush, both went to the New South Wales (NSW) government’s planning department for assessment in November of 2024.

The Steel River plans have now landed with the IPC after receiving 64 community submissions during public exhibition, including three submissions in support – all within 50 km of the project – and 61 submissions objecting, all further than 50 km from the project.

Looking at the map below, you can see that nearly all of the objectors to the battery live more than 200 km away from the proposed battery site, with 11 of the NSW submissions coming from between 400 km and 600 km away, down near the state’s southern border.

Another 24 submissions objecting to the battery came from interstate, including a whopping 17 from Victoria, six from Queensland – including serial objector to all projects solar, wind or storage Rainforest Reserves – and one from Tasmania.

For developers of renewable energy and storage projects in NSW, it’s an all-too familiar pattern. Under state rules, any project that receives over 50 objections must be referred to the IPC, regardless of where those objections come from.

This sometimes works as intended. In January, a gigawatt-scale battery project near Tamworth in the New England region was sent to the IPC on the weight of objections more than half of which came from people living within 5 kms of the planned project.

But increasingly, the process is being hijacked by anti-renewables groups and serial objectors.

Earlier this month, the IPC cancelled a public meeting scheduled to discuss the future of the Burroway solar farm, proposed for central western NSW by Edify Energy, after none of the more than 80 objectors to the project registered to speak.

Ausgrid’s Steel River BESS is proposed to be located next to the existing substation in the Steel River Industrial Estate in Mayfield West, in northern Newcastle. If approved, the project will be built and operated by a third party.

According to the EIS submissions report, objections to the project covered concerns ranging from modern slavery to the perceived inefficiency of BESS technology; economic, environmental and social impacts, fire risks and chemical waste and agricultural impacts.

One submission, in this case from the NSW New England region, says “I want you All to Go To China and Never Come Back. Never. Never. Go away.”