ACEREZ, a consortium of ACCIONA, COBRA and Endeavour Energy, has been selected by the Energy Corporation of New South Wales (EnergyCo) to deliver the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) transmission project in Australia.
Under the agreement, ACEREZ will be responsible for designing, building, and financing the Central-West Orana REZ transmission project and operating and maintaining it for the next 35 years.
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Central-West Orana REZ will be built on roughly 20,000 km2 near Dunedoo, Mudgee, and Dubbo, a rural area about 330km northwest of Sydney.
The REZ is one of Australia’s first to begin construction and it will deliver at least 4.5GW of new network capacity by 2028. It will help connect 7.7GW of wind and solar PV generation projects to the grid, an increase from the initial 6GW proposed.
With the confirmation of the contract awarded to ACEREZ, EnergyCo confirmed that the REZ would begin construction at the mid-year point.
EnergyCo CEO Hannah McCaughey described the Central-West Orana REZ as a “once-in-a-generation extension of the New South Wales electricity grid.”
“We look forward to continuing our relationship with ACEREZ as we move into the delivery phase for the state’s first REZ, which will harness our abundant wind and solar resources to power New South Wales,” McCaughey added.
“It [the REZ] is a major step in securing our energy future and keeping the lights on as coal-fired power stations retire.”
The Australian Energy Market Operator predicts all coal-fired power will be withdrawn in 2038, but this is contested by UK research group Cornwall Insight, which argues that coal-fired power will still be in use into the 2050s.
PV Tech has previously reported that the New South Wales government is developing at least five separate multi-gigawatt REZ facilities connected to the grid and partially using long-duration energy storage (LDES) to replace traditional centralised power plants.
The five REZs include the Hunter-Central Coast, the South-West, New England, Central-West Orana, and Illawarra.
The REZ are not restricted to New South Wales but are scattered across the country’s states. Queensland, for instance, recently published a roadmap detailing how it would develop its 12 REZs. Victoria, on the other hand, has identified six REZ locations.
