EnergyCo says hundreds of New England residents had their say on REZ preliminary plan

Local residents and landholders across the region have provided "valuable feedback" about the New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), according to the company driving construction, EnergyCo.

An EnergyCo spokesperson said the company had consulted about 50 landowners and spoken to more than 400 people during the community information sessions.

Community information and engagement sessions were held in Uralla, Dungowan, Armidale, and Walcha last month, giving the company a chance to lay out the plans for the REZ.

The proposed zone in New England will be just one kilometre wide, likely housing solar and wind farms as well as battery storage.

READ ALSO:

The New England zone covers almost 15,500 square kilometres with a network capacity of 8 gigawatts.

Many Dungowan residents and landholders the Leader had spoken to had expressed concerns about the proposed placement of the REZ transmission lines and easements.

Responding to the concern, the EnergyCo spokesperson said the NSW government had recently called for an inquiry into the feasibility of underground transmission infrastructure for the renewable energy project.

"While technically feasible, underground transmission is generally used in cases where it is not feasible to secure a corridor for overhead lines, such as developed urban areas or undersea," the EnergyCo spokesperson told the Leader.

"While underground cables may be preferable due to less visual impact, underground cables have significantly higher costs, longer repair times, lower transfer capacity and often require a similar easement footprint as overhead lines."

EnergyCo detailed to residents about the preliminary placement of transmission lines and energy hubs.

"We have already received valuable feedback to feed into our planning and design process and understand there are still many more landowners we need to meet with," the spokesperson said.

"We encourage anyone within the preliminary study corridor or who has an interest in the project to reach out to our team if they haven't done so already so we can schedule a time to come and meet with you."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: