Another privately owned pumped hydro project has emerged in New South Wales as the state continues its search for more long-duration storage, with French energy giant EDF putting its plans for the Wala Wala project in New England before state and federal planning arbiters.
The $1.5 billion project has been initially pitched as a 300 megawatt (MW), 10 hour system downstream from the Dungowan dam and about 45 km southeast of Tamworth, inside the New England renewable energy zone (REZ).
EDF lodged both state and EPBC applications last month, after buying the project off Mirus Energy and Energy Estate in 2023. It intends to use two newly created off-river water reservoirs connected by an underground pipeline and an underground hydro-electric power station.
The proposed start date is currently 2033, as EDF gives itself not quite three years to get approvals in hand and another four-and-a-half years for construction and commissioning.
EDF also has a hand in the 350 MW Lake Lyell project, which is currently responding to submissions, while Yancoal’s similarly-sized $1.8 billion Stratford project was approved in July.
Alinta hopes to start building the 900 MW Oven Mountain project, just west of the New England REZ, in 2028, while AGL and Acen are both at the early stages of planning the Muswellbrook and Phoenix pumped hydro projects, respectively.
A 50 km extension cord and 7000 hectares
The technical details aren’t fully scoped out yet, while 12 years’ research has eliminated several alternate locations, the work to figure out how it will fit into the Dungowan hillside is just beginning.
The exact length of the tunnels haven’t been confirmed yet, but with the top reservoir 2 km from the lower, the system will be much less ambitious from that perspective than the 2 gigawatt (GW) Snowy 2.0, which has a 17 km headrace.
The project will need a 50 km long extension cord to hook into the nearest, existing, power lines.
A concept drawing of how the Wala Wala project might look. Image: Wala Wala scoping report
EDF is currently looking to connect to the existing 330 kilovolt (kV) transmission lines to the northwest.
But if the 500 kV New England REZ transmission project is finished in time and ready, it might also consider connecting to this as well.
At this stage, EDF suspects its project to have consequences for 26 threatened plants, 35 threatened animals and birds, and five migratory bird species, according to the EPBC application.
The almost 7000 hectare area that will be needed to build the pumped hydro and transmission line includes nationally protected New England peppermint grassy woodlands, and is used by the likes of quolls, gang-gang cockatoos and possibly Murray cod.
But what is less understood is the Aboriginal influence in the area.
The project area is within the traditional boundaries of the Gomeroi peoples, and includes resources that are likely to have been “attractive” to them, but the EPBC referral notes extensive gaps in data around their use of the area.
“While detailed investigations have been carried out previously upstream of the project, it is highlighted that the majority of the project area has not been subject to previous investigation,” the referral says.
Winning over the neighbours
EDF has deals with 15 landowners as it continues to investigate the site and how it could go about building the project, the NSW scoping report says.
Sentiment among Facebook groups is negative, with commenters who claim to have attended information sessions raising issues around where the water will come from and the state of the roads in the Dungowan valley.
The scoping report says while water supply is still to be confirmed, EDF will likely need to tap the 6000 megalitre Dungowan dam for part, “if not all”, of its water requirements.
“Accessing water directly from the Dungowan Creek is not under consideration,” the report says, a direct rejection of some of the theories already circulating on social media.
The full system would have an active storage volume of 3 gigalitres (GL) and a total water maximum volume stored of 5.4 GL with the lower reservoir holding most of that, according to the scoping report.
It also provides a relatively detailed account, for a scoping report, of EDF’s interactions with a community opposition group called the Dungowan Creek Alliance.
“DCA has raised several issues relating to the project, including water security and water sourcing, impacts on agricultural land and land use, biodiversity, transmission infrastructure, landscape and visual values, and the cumulative effects of renewable energy developments in the New England REZ,” the report says.
“[After the group introduced itself in 2025], engagement with the DCA has been ongoing.
“This engagement has provided EDFA with opportunities to understand the issues raised, share available project information, respond to questions… for example, the studies and analysis required to answer the question have not yet been completed.”
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