Central-West Orana REZ

View our decisions on the contestable and non-contestable network elements of the Central-West Orana REZ (CWO REZ).

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.

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

The CWO REZ network projects include:

Main CWO REZ network project (contestable)

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.

Enabling CWO REZ network project (non-contestable)

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

On 4 June 2024, the Consumer Trustee authorised ACEREZ and Transgrid to carry out the main and enabling CWO REZ network projects, respectively. The authorisations were consistent with the recommendation from the NSW Energy Corporation (EnergyCo).

ACEREZ submitted a revenue proposal to the AER for the main CWO REZ network project on 24 October 2024. We have 42 business days from the date of receipt of the revenue proposal to make a revenue determination.

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