AG真人官方

The NSW Government is in the early stages of planning a REZ in the New England region, centred around Armidale. The New England REZ will be serviced by new network infrastructure, including transmission lines and energy hubs, and enabling infrastructure which will transfer power generated by solar and wind farms to electricity consumers. The REZ will have an intended network capacity of 8 gigawatts, helping to ensure secure, greener, reliable power supply to the residents of NSW. Additionally, the REZ is anticipated to support approximately 2,000 operational jobs and 6,000 construction jobs, delivering up to $24 billion in private sector investment. The Project has been declared Critical State Significant Infrastructure by the NSW Minister for Planning & Public Spaces.

OUR INVOLVEMENT: Environmental Impact Statement, Social Impact Assessment, Specialist Assessments for Biodiversity, Aboriginal Archaeology and Historic Heritage and GIS Management Support.

Umwelt has been engaged to provide environment, planning and engagement advisory services for the delivery of this project and to prepare the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Social Impact Assessment (SIA) in support of an application for approval. As part of the EIS, Umwelt鈥檚 specialist teams for Biodiversity, Aboriginal Archaeology and Historic Heritage have also been engaged. Our Spatial & Visualisation team are also managing EnergyCo鈥檚 GIS Portal for the project.

Our responsibility is to provide a robust environmental, socio-economic and cultural assessment while managing approval risks and supporting EnergyCo to foster support with local stakeholders and communities.

OUTCOME:

A scoping report for the project was prepared and submitted to the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and infrastructure (DPHI) and the Secretary鈥檚 Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs) were issued in September 2024. Work to develop the EIS for the REZ network infrastructure project will continue throughout 2025. The EIS will comprehensively assess the impacts and overall merits of the project, as well as identify options to avoid, minimise and mitigate potential adverse impacts.