What the Central-West Orana REZ actually is, and why the wires matter more than the wind farms

A zone is a set of wires, not a set of wind farms

This is the thing most worth understanding, and EnergyCo states it plainly: New transmission infrastructure will enable generators (such as solar and wind farms) participating in the REZ to export electricity to the rest of the network.

So the public project is the network. The wind and solar farms are private developments that connect to it. When people argue about whether the REZ is good for the Central West, they are usually arguing about the generators, but the thing the state is building, and the thing that determines whether the generators can be built at all, is the capacity to carry the power away.

The official numbers

In full, EnergyCo describes the zone as approximately 20,000 square kilometres centred by Dubbo and Dunedoo, on the land of the Wiradjuri, Wailwan and Kamilaroi people, and says The NSW Government is in the delivery phase for the state’s first renewable energy zone (REZ) in the Central-West Orana region.

On scale, the headline claim is that The REZ will unlock at least 4.5 gigawatts of new network capacity by 2028, to connect 7.7 gigawatts of wind and solar projects, which is enough to power more than 2 million homes each year. On money and work, The REZ is expected to attract up to $25 billion dollars in private investment and It is forecast to support an annual average of about 1,850 direct jobs in the local area during construction, and about 930 ongoing operational jobs from 2034.

One note on that timing, because the same page says it two ways. The banner figure is capacity by 2028, while the key details section a few paragraphs below says the REZ will initially unlock at least 4.5 gigawatts of new network capacity by the late-2020s. Same commitment, one dated and one not. We have quoted both rather than choosing, and a reader holding the project to a date should hold it to the specific one.

Why here, and why five

NSW has declared 5 REZs across the state, and this is the first. The reason given is blunt about what is driving it: Many of NSW’s ageing coal-fired power stations are set to close in the next ten years.

The site-selection logic is worth reading if you have ever wondered why this region rather than somewhere emptier. Selected zones, EnergyCo says, have abundant sun and wind resources, are close to existing power lines, and have populations large enough to support and benefit from long-term industries. Being near existing lines and being populated are features, not accidents: concentrating projects in a zone is meant to limit how much new transmission gets built across the state overall.

Where the community money comes from

We have reported the benefit funds separately: the $14.5 million telecommunications program and the $45 million split between four councils. What none of those stories says is where the money originates, and it is not general revenue.

EnergyCo: The Community and Employment Benefit Program is funded from access fees, paid by generation and storage projects with an access right to connect to the grid.

That is a direct line from the private developments to the local funds. The money is paid by the generators for the right to connect, which means the size of the community benefit is tied to how much generation actually gets built and connected, not to a budget decision made in Sydney. It is the clearest answer to the reasonable local question of what the region gets in return.

What this page does not settle

Whether the forecasts land is a different question from what the forecasts are, and this page only reports the second. Investment of up to $25 billion is a ceiling, not a commitment, and job figures for 2034 are projections. We have separately reported exactly what the state has agreed to measure to test the local effects, which is the honest way to check these claims later rather than arguing about them now. We have not spoken to EnergyCo, any generator or any council for this page.