EIS lodged for Australia’s first renewable zone, Greens lament “compulsory acquisition”

The NSW government says the environmental impact statement for the country’s first official renewable energy zone has been lodged, in what it describes as a major milestone in the shift from coal to green energy.

The Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), based around and to the east of Dubbo, will deliver at least 3 gigawatts of new wind and solar generation, as well as storage, although this could be increased to 4.5GW.

It is one of at least five such zones designed to deliver enough renewables and storage to replace the state’s ageing coal fired generators. The others are in New England, the south-west, the Hunter, and Illawarra.

The EIS has been lodged by EnergyCo, the state authority charged with managing the roll out of the REZs, and follows more than two years of dwork, and a change of route in response to early community feedback. It also canvasses a southern extension that has yet to get approval.

The EIS is essentially about the transmission needs for the zone, which includes new twin 500 kV power lines, double circuit 330 kV single lines, and a range of other infrastructure including switching stations. These are needed because the existing lines can’t support the increase in capacity.

“The lodgement of the Environmental Impact Statement demonstrates our commitment to ensuring NSW households, businesses and industry can access clean, affordable and reliable energy as coal-fired power stations retire,” energy minister Penny Sharpe said in a statement.

“It shows the NSW Government is getting the roadmap to renewables back on track, so we can ensure there is enough renewable energy to replace aging coal-fired power stations.

The proposed new transmission links will require easements up to 200 metres wide where a 330kV easement is located next to a 500kV easement. The towers will be up to 70 metres tall.

However, the NSW Greens issued a statement on Friday, saying they were outraged that the government had begun compulsory acquisition processes for easements in the REZ, and complained about the “ridiculously” short turnaround for the 8,000 page EIS document.

“It is unconscionable for EnergyCo to notify landholders that their properties will be compulsorily acquired as soon as November when their project hasn’t even received planning approval,” said Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, who also heads a committee on the feasibility of under-grounding transmission lines.

“The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was only lodged yesterday and the community will only have 28 days to make objections.

“Not only is this a ridiculously short turnaround for an 8,000 page document, but to be sending out compulsory acquisition notices at this stage is indicative of just how farcical the consultation process has become for projects declared ‘state significant infrastructure’.

“EnergyCo progressing to compulsory acquisition despite not expecting a planning decision until mid-2024 makes a mockery of the state’s entire planning process.

“If this is how all the REZs are going to be undertaken, the Government needs to do better to ensure these projects have the social licence needed to enable them to progress swiftly.”

Faehrmann’s office told RenewEconomy that reports of letters advising of compulsory acquisition had been circulating for months, but EnergyCo rejected the suggestion that any compulsory acquisition had been needed.

“The Central-West Orana transmission project was declared Critical State Significant Infrastructure almost 3 years ago – as it is essential to NSW’s energy security and our transition to a renewable energy future,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“EnergyCo has been negotiating with many of the landowners along the proposed Central-West Orana transmission project for well over a year and has made a number of major changes to the project as a result of feedback from landowners.”

The building of transmission lines has become a key issue – not just within the REZs in NSW, but also the long transmission links identified by the Australian Energy Market Operator to link states such as Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and Queensland, and to properly connect the Snowy 2.0 project to the grid.

The NSW government recently announced that it could dramatically increase the size of the Central West REZ to 4.5GW initially and then to 6GW by 2038. It has already conceded that the CWO REZ could cost $3.2 billion – five times more than originally thought – because of the increased capacity and be rolled out three years later.

The cost over-runs and delays are also having an impact on the decision making process and negotiations over the timing of the closure of the state’s four remaining coal-fired generators – Eraring, Vales Point, Bayswater and Mt Piper.

NSW has already flagged that it will talk to Eraring owner Origin Energy about the possibility of keep at least  least some of its units open beyond the planned closure date of August, 2025.

However, this is likely to cost a tidy sum, and Origin is facing problems because the ash dams at the Eraring site are nearly full.

Others have suggested that the delays in the transmission expansion could be at least partly solved by accelerating the roll-out of storage, and by using previously unrealised capacity on the state’s existing distributed networks, where multiple gigawatts of new wind and solar could be hosted.

The NSW government is hosting a number of different tenders for new wind, solar and long duration storage, and a special tender for two-hour “firming capacity” to help fill the gap that would be created by the closure of Eraring. Initial results from at least two of those tenders are expected soon.

Note: This story has been updated to include the response from EnergyCo.