Lumea, the commercial arm of Australian transmission system operator Transgrid, is set to connect one of New South Wales’ largest solar PV power plants to the National Electricity Market (NEM).
Global solar developer Lightsource bp is pursuing the 450MW Goulburn River solar-plus-storage plant, with DT Infrastructure (DTI) behind its construction. The plant entered construction on 16 December after receiving development consent from the Australian government in early October.
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Lumea will carry out several installations to connect the solar PV project near Merriwa in the Upper Hunter to the NEM. This includes a 500kV transmission line cut-in, a 500kV switching station, a 500kV substation, and associated works.
The project is expected to be operational by the end of 2026, with its plans including the installation of an on-site 49MW/392MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) with an 8-hour duration.
Lumea executive general manager Craig Stallan highlighted the number of renewable energy generation projects that have been connected over the past half-decade.
“Over the past five years we have connected more than 55 generators to the grid and brought 12GW of energy to market – enough to power four million households,” Stallan said.
“We are working hard to deliver tailored solutions that enable reliable and efficient energy connections and large-scale storage solutions to support Australia’s clean energy future.”
Lightsource bp, which was fully acquired by its oil and gas major counterpart bp in late October, has a global portfolio spanning 19 countries and 62GW of projects in development. The largest of these is the 560MW Enipeas project in Greece.
Lightsource bp’s success in the Capacity Investment Scheme
The 450MW Goulburn River solar PV plant was one of several projects owned by Lightsource bp that succeeded in the first tender round of the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), which saw solar PV awarded 2.8GW.
In total, 19 projects successfully completed the tender process, with the majority located in New South Wales and Victoria, with seven projects each. Queensland saw three successful projects, whilst South Australia secured two projects.
Alongside the Goulburn River plant, Lightsource bp saw success via its 700MW Sandy Creek solar PV project in New South Wales and its 300MW West Mokoan solar-plus-storage site in Victoria.
The 300MW West Mokoan project features a 560MWh BESS and will be separated across two sites. It is expected to be operational by Q4 2026.
New South Wales has become a focus point for utility-scale solar PV projects in Australia. Such projects include Ark Energy’s 500MW Tallawang solar-plus-storage site, located within the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), and Acen Australia’s 600MW Birriwa solar-plus-storage project.
The development of solar PV and energy storage projects is being aided by several large-scale transmission infrastructure projects. This includes HumeLink, an almost AU$5 billion (US$3.1 billion) energy transmission project, which will see 365km of new 500kV high-voltage transmission infrastructure between Wagga Wagga, Bannaby and Maragle constructed.
The project received approval from the Australian government in late 2024, as reported by our sister site Energy-Storage.news.
Alongside HumeLink, Transgrid is exploring the development of the Victoria to NSW Interconnector West, better known as VNI West, as a means to transmit more renewable energy between the two states.
