What was announced
On 22 July 2026, EnergyCo announced a $14.5 million Telecommunications Infrastructure Uplift Program for the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone. On its own figures the program covers over 900 square kilometres of the zone, and is designed to bring high-speed internet to hundreds of eligible premises and improved mobile signal to thousands of residents, workers and visitors.
The money is not itself a build. It is a grant pool that telecommunications providers apply into: eligible projects can be funded for up to 70 per cent of their cost, with the providers carrying the rest. The program is administered by EnergyCo with the NSW Telco Authority, and applications open in the coming months. Until providers apply and projects are approved, no tower is funded and no premises is connected. What exists today is the funding and the eligibility, not the coverage.
It is drawn from a larger commitment. EnergyCo describes the program as part of a $128 million total community benefits investment in the Central-West Orana REZ, a commitment of the Minns Labor Government.
"Regional areas suffer from too many telecommunications blackspots. This program
will help fund the upgrades that communities have been calling for," said the Minister
for Climate Change and Energy, Penny Sharpe. The Minister for Customer Service and
Digital Government, Jihad Dib, framed the mechanism: This program will help unlock
investment from telecommunications providers to support better network coverage and
improve digital services.
The Minister for Regional NSW, Tara Moriarty, put the local
case: This is a positive outcome for the Central-West Orana region, particularly for
primary producers who are increasingly reliant on digital connectivity to manage their
businesses, access information and adopt new technologies.
What the REZ behind it is
The fund is one benefit flowing from the largest renewable-energy build in the country. The Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone, centred by the towns of Dubbo and Dunedoo, covers approximately 20,000 square kilometres. On EnergyCo's project page it is building at least 4.5 gigawatts of new network capacity by 2028, enough transmission to connect 7.7 gigawatts of wind and solar projects, which EnergyCo says is enough to power more than 2 million homes each year.
It received planning approval in June 2024 and construction continues through to 2030. The transmission is being delivered by ACEREZ, a consortium of ACCIONA, COBRA and Endeavour Energy, which will operate and maintain it for the next 35 years. EnergyCo expects the zone to attract up to $25 billion in private investment, and estimates an annual average of about 1,850 direct jobs in the local area during construction and about 930 ongoing operational jobs from 2034.
One point of geography matters for readers at the Bathurst and Orange end of the Central West: the zone is centred on the Orana, around Dubbo and Dunedoo, to the north-west of the tablelands core. Its footprint does not sit over the two cities. Its scale, and the community-benefit model it is testing, reach the whole region all the same. Why EnergyCo says it identified connectivity as a benefit is set out by the agency's chief executive, Hannah McCaughey: "Communities in the Central-West Orana REZ identified improved connectivity as a benefit they would like to see from renewable energy development. Strong digital connectivity helps communities thrive, supports local businesses, helps people access services and keeps families connected."
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| New network capacity by 2028 | 4.5 GW (at least) |
| Wind and solar to be connected | 7.7 GW |
| Homes powered each year | more than 2 million |
| Zone footprint | about 20,000 km² |
| Private investment expected | up to $25 billion |
| Direct jobs in construction (annual average) | about 1,850 |
| Ongoing operational jobs from 2034 | about 930 |
| Transmission operate-and-maintain term (ACEREZ) | 35 years |
The proportion, and it is our read
This is where a plain reading helps. The $14.5 million connectivity fund is real, and blackspots are a genuine problem for the people who live and work under them. But it is a modest slice of the benefits attached to this project, and the project is a very large one. On EnergyCo's own numbers the fund is a fraction of the $128 million community-benefits pool it belongs to, and that pool in turn sits against a build expected to attract up to $25 billion in private investment. The connectivity money is a rounding item against the investment the zone is expected to draw.
That is not a criticism of the program; it is the scale of the thing. Our read, and we label it as ours, is that the fund is worth welcoming for what it is, better coverage where coverage is thin, and worth keeping honest about what it is not: switched-on infrastructure. The test will be how many of the hundreds of eligible premises and thousands of residents actually end up connected once providers apply and projects are built. We will follow the applications when they open, and report what gets funded against what was promised.