Contested transmission route changed to avoid caves – and another 50 landholders

A new nip-and-tuck to plans for a major new transmission line that will support the New England renewable energy zone (REZ) in New South Wales has removed another 50-odd properties from the proposed corridor, to better avoid caves and homes – and to lean in to supportive landholders.

EnergyCo said on Friday that it has narrowed the transmission corridor proposed to connect the New England REZ to the existing grid at Bayswater Power Station from 3 km to 1 km, following community and stakeholder consultation, field investigations and detailed technical assessments.

The 2 km adjustment has cut the total number of New England and Upper Hunter landholders affected by the transmission corridor from around 200 to 150 along the study area between Muswellbrook and Walcha.

Further, EnergyCo says the number of dwellings within half a kilometre of the 250 metre transmission line has been cut from 37 to 20, a reduction of around 45 per cent.

The New England REZ is expected to be the biggest in NSW, hosting up to 8 gigawatts (GW) of new projects. The connected transmission project is the critical link from north of Armidale to the Hunter Valley to help power the state’s biggest load centres around Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong.

The updated route follows a similarly significant change announced in October of last year, which cut 98 properties from the study area and steered it away from a property owned by the family of anti-renewables campaigner and One Nation party member, Barnaby Joyce.

EnergyCo says the latest adaptations will avoid environmentally sensitive areas at Timor Caves and near Barry, move infrastructure away from dwellings where possible, reduce visual impacts at properties near Gundy, Waverly and Timor, and “prioritise areas where landholders have expressed support for hosting REZ infrastructure.”

The refined route also skims the eastern edge of Lake Glenbawn, but EnergyCo says this should not prevent aerial water-scooping operations from being carried out – although that theory will be “rigorously tested” through the planning process, in consultation with local fire services.

EnergyCo says the next step is to prepare the environmental impact statement (EIS), which is being shared with landholders to give them a clearer picture of potential impacts and to inform further discussions.

“While this corridor will be the focus of the EIS, the 1 km wide corridor will continue to be assessed and refined in response to ongoing technical studies and landowner and community consultation,” a statement says.

EnergyCo chief Hannah McCaughey says that while the project is considered “essential to keeping the lights on” as the state’s remaining coal plants retire, how it is delivered “matters just as much as the outcome.”

“Community and landholder feedback has led directly to changes, routes have been altered, environmental impacts reduced, and the number of affected landholders significantly lowered,” McCaughey said in a statement on Friday.

“This important milestone for the New England Renewable Energy Zone transmission route brings us closer to delivering a once-in-a-generation economic opportunity for regional NSW.”

New England REZ project director Doug Parris says the hope is that the updated EIS will go on public exhibition later this year.

“The EIS is an important step in the planning and environmental assessment process, but more than that, it’s a chance for us to receive feedback from communities through a formal display period,” he said.

“We appreciate the valuable feedback received to date and encourage continued input as we finalise our environmental assessments and work to identify the final easements in consultation with landholders.”

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