Australia’s landmark Central-West Orana renewable energy zone (REZ) has raised its first transmission tower as it looks to come online by 2028.
EnergyCo announced the milestone last week, with the 70m-high, 500kV transmission tower pre-assembled in 19 sections by network operator ACEREZ and lifted into place by crane. The tower comprises 2862 steel components and 6252 bolts. This forms part of a broader 240km network of transmission lines to be built across the Central-West Orana REZ.
The Central-West Orana REZ – which spans 20,000km2 in central NSW – is set to unlock an initial 4.5 gigawatts (GW) of new network capacity by the late 2020s. In doing so, the REZ is expected to attract up to $25 billion in private investment and support 1850 jobs during construction and about 930 ongoing jobs.
More than 110 local businesses are already working on the project, with more than a third of the workforce drawn from the region.
It comes after Ausgrid and EnergyCo broke ground on the Hunter-Central Coast REZ in early March, which is set to support an additional 1.8GW of renewable energy and storage capacity from 2028.
This will see an industry first for a REZ, whereby 85km of transmission lines will be upgraded rather than built from new, with 18km of underground fibre optic communications cable to be installed and two new energy hubs at Sandy Creek and Antiene built.
Other REZ across NSW include New England, Illawarra and South West, each of which have been strategically located in areas boasting abundant sun and wind resources.
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