Planning approvals

Planning approvals

Environmental assessment and planning approvals

All projects in the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) will go through an extensive planning and environmental approval process.

The REZ transmission network infrastructure has been declared a Critical State Significant Infrastructure (CSSI) project by the Minister for Planning as it is considered 'essential for the State for economic, environmental or social reasons'.

Under the NSW Environment Planning and Assessment Act 1979, all CSSI applications are required to go through a comprehensive assessment process with extensive community involvement. This assessment process is outlined on the NSW Planning Portal.

EnergyCo will be the proponent of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the REZ network infrastructure. The EIS is expected to be displayed for public exhibition in late 2023. All submissions received as part of the exhibition will be reviewed and a response will be made publicly available in a Submissions Report.

Developers will be responsible for lodging their own development applications and preparing an EIS for each wind and solar development. The timetable for environmental assessments of proposed wind and solar farms will be determined by the developers.