Central West Orana, 20,000km2 in size, is New South Wales’ first Renewable Energy Zone (REZ). The project will initially unlock at least 3GW of new network capacity by the mid‑2020s and is expected to bring up to AU$10 billion in private investment.
Renewable energy zones like Central West Orana 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.
Our involvement in Central West Orana
Arche Energy has been delivering project development services to the Central West Orana REZ since 2022. Our Principal Consultant, Matt Richards, is the Candidate Foundational Generators (CFG) Coordinator, managing interactions between EnergyCo and the developers who are seeking to bring their renewable projects onto the grid.
He is also on the Transaction Team for procuring transmission infrastructure for the REZ. This involves:
- analysing the energy supply change during the procurement process
- examining the interface between developer projects and the transmission line
- navigating the National Electricity Rules and their application to multiple, concurrent, large-scale renewable connections
- implementing government procurement tender evaluation protocols
- developing project delivery strategies for integration of new transmission with new renewable generation.
Earlier in our involvement, Arche’s George Mellick worked closely with EnergyCo, AEMO and network operators to develop and implement the performance management system for the REZ to cover the 35-year contract term.
George established a mutually acceptable set of performance parameters for both reliability and availability of the network, worked across operations and commercial teams to identify the financial risks of poor performance, and finalised commercial agreements, schedules and financial negotiations to ensure delivery of commercial and maintenance aspects of the project.
Arche is delivering similar services to the New England REZ.