The New South Wales Government is in the early stages of planning the New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ). This project is in the New England region, centred around Armidale on the lands of the Biripi, Dainggatti, Nganyaywana, Ngarabal, and Gumbainggir people.
REZs like New England REZ are expansive areas being developed for their high potential to generate renewable energy. These areas combine energy generation infrastructure, transmission infrastructure and energy storage systems like batteries or pumped hydropower. REZs capitalise on economies of scale by connecting multiple renewable energy projects to deliver cheaper and more reliable energy.
Arche Energy’s involvement with New England REZ
NSW EnergyCo engaged our team in 2022 to work on New England REZ where we continue to provide project development services for the commercial and technical integration of generators onto the New England REZ infrastructure.
Our Principal Consultant, David Nolan, manages our involvement on the project, which includes participation in the Candidate Foundation Generator selection process and ongoing coordination with the generators.
David is responsible for generator engagement where he facilitates a two-way-flow of information between the transmission project and numerous major renewable energy projects.
Dave also contributed to capacity assessments, detailed geospatial analysis and to cumulative impacts assessments across the region. His work also involved:
- calculating the REZ’s generation profile
- identifying risk, rating and mitigation
- coordinating bilateral meetings with generators
- managing RFI responses
- maintaining generator details registers
- coordinating the connection design process
- contributing his expertise to technical workshops on network infrastructure and connections.
Arche is delivering similar services on the Central West Orana REZ.