The project

The Central-West Orana (CWO) REZ is approximately 20,000 square kilometres located in central NSW and centred by Dubbo and Dunedoo. It is designed to initially deliver 4.5 gigawatts of network capacity utilising generation from solar, wind and energy storage, with capacity to increase to 6 GW by 2038. 

The CWO REZ was declared by the NSW Minister for Energy and Environment under section 19(1) of the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Act (EII Act) in November 2021. The declaration was amended in December 2023 and April 2024. 

Three electricity tranmission towers in a grassy field with cloudy sky in the background

Project components

The CWO REZ network projects include:

ACEREZ Partnership is the network operator authorised to develop, construct, own, control and operate the main CWO REZ network project. This project comprises the network infrastructure within the CWO REZ to connect new generation and storage projects to the existing NSW transmission network. This is a contestable project.

Transgrid is the network operator authorised to develop, construct, own, control and operate the enabling infrastructure for the CWO REZ. This project comprises upgrades to the existing NSW transmission network to transfer energy from the CWO REZ to major load centres in NSW. This is a non-contestable project.

Revenue proposal

ACEREZ submitted a revenue proposal to the AER for the main CWO REZ network project on 24 October 2024. 

Main Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone network project (contestable)

The AER has received a revenue proposal from ACEREZ for the main Central-West Orana REZ network project and has commenced its assessment of the proposal.
Determinations
Open
Commencement date
REZ
Transmission
NSW