The Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), through AEMO Services, has selected two renewable projects and three long-duration storage projects with a combined capacity of 1,276 MW in the Tender Round 3 of the NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap. The selected projects include Squadron Energy's 400 MW Uungula wind park at the CWO REZ Twelve Mile, Neoen Australia's 350 MW Culcairn solar park in Culcairn, Ark Energy Projects's 275 MW/2,200 MWh Richmond Valley BESS in Myrtle Creek, A-CAES NSW's 200 MW/1,600 MWh Silver City Energy Storage in Broken Hill, and Lightsource Development's 49 MW/392 MWh Goulburn River BESS in Merriwa.
The 5 projects are expected to be operational from 2028 and will represent AUD4.2bn (US$2.8bn) in private sector investment in the state’s renewable energy infrastructure, building upon the AUD4.3bn (US$2.9bn) in private sector investment committed in AEMO Services’ 2 previous tenders. With this third tender, NSW has now secured 5.79 GW of its legislated 12 GW renewable target for generation and 574 MW of the legislated 2 GW target for long-duration storage.
In addition, the NSW government has raised the planned capacity of the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (CWO REZ) to 6 GW by 2038 - with an initial network capacity of 4.5 GW - and reached an agreement with a consortium of Acciona, Cobra and Endeavour Energy ("ACEREZ" consortium) to deliver, operate and maintain the CWO REZ transmission network for the next 35 years, including new transmission lines, energy hubs and related infrastructure. The next step for the Central-West Orana REZ is to complete regulatory and planning approvals ahead of the final contract with the network operator being awarded and financial close, scheduled for the second half of 2024. If approved, construction could start in early 2025 and operations could begin in 2027-2028.
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