NSW seeks to thread a path for renewable “backbone” through Hunter Valley

The NSW government has outlined its proposed route for a new 115 kilometre transmission line through the Hunter Valley, threading a path through mines, forests and along existing easements for a project it says is essential to pave the way for the shift from coal.

The Hunter Transmission Project is designed to deliver at least 5 gigawatts of additional wind and solar power from the renewable energy zones created in the New England and Central-West Orana regions.

The Hunter Transmission Project will take the wind and solar power from next to the Bayswater coal fired power station in the upper Hunter, to the site of the soon to be shuttered Eraring coal fired generator on the central coast, from where the electricity will be distributed to major load centres in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong.

EnergyCo says it has avoided the town of Singleton, and the wine and tourist areas around Polkobin, and villages such as Millfield and Wollombi, and to minimise impacts on significant scenic landscapes.

The first part of the corridor is wide as it passes through mining leases and EnergyCo is yet to finalise deals on the exact route. The link is then proposed to move through mostly state forest and conservation areas, before linking up with an existing transmission line for the final part of the route.

The government says EnergyCo believes the proposed route strikes a reasonable balance between different land uses and minimises the use of privately-owned land.

Landowners who do host transmission infrastructure will receive increased payments under the state’s Strategic Benefit Payments scheme, which amounts to $200,000 per kilometre over 20 years.

The proposed route is on public exhibition until Monday, December 18, and EnergyCo will continue working with local communities over the next 18 months “to get the details right”. The project is expected to be operational in 2027-28.

“We need community input to get the design right,” Sharpe said. “Feedback will influence the location of the corridor, and we want to resolve as much detail as possible with communities and potentially affected landowners in these early stages.”

The document says two 500 kV transmission lines may ultimately be needed. The first is considered urgent and must be operating by early 2028 and will provide an extra 5 GW of transfer capacity.