Governments review community consultation, undergrounding transmission lines from REZs

But they remain sceptical about a state push to re-open an inquiry into undergrounding transmission lines from the REZ.

"The federal review is extremely important, it's been lacking from day one in this process," Walcha Shire Mayor Eric Noakes said.

"However, I can't see how going through another round of meetings [in a state inquiry] is going to change the answer to undergrounding transmission lines."

In 2020, the NSW government announced New England would become the state's largest renewable energy zone.

While New England mayors remain "agnostic" to the zoning, they have led community concerns over poor planning and lack of consultation in the process.

Armidale Mayor Sam Coupland founded the Coalition of Renewable Energy Mayors to ensure local needs were recognised and to help shape each zone.

In July, he led a delegation of New England mayors to deliver a submission to a NSW Upper House public inquiry into the feasibility of undergrounding transmission lines.

The committee ultimately opposed such a move, despite overwhelming objections to overhead transmission lines from landholders and the community.

Now dissenting member Cate Faehrmann is chairing another inquiry into the matter, hoping its findings will be more than a "tick-and-flick" exercise.

But Mayor Noakes says the inquiry won't change the state government's mind to install overhead powerlines from renewable energy projects.

"Undergrounding transmission lines was not economic, that won't change," he said.

Uralla Shire Mayor Robert Bell said he was taken by surprise by the news.

"I'm unsure whether this is a political change or it will lead to a new outcome," he said.

Both, however, welcomed the Federal Government inquiry into community consultation surrounding the creation of REZs, although Mayor Bell said it "came a bit late".

"We [Uralla Shire Council] have until the end of this month to set out our concerns about how community consultation, or lack of it, has worked," Mayor Bell said.

Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Andrew Dyer will lead the review, that will assess and recommend reforms in community engagement around the planning and deployment of renewable energy infrastructure upgrades and developments.

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The issue remains complex because the energy zoning is a state issue, whereas community consultation remains a responsibility of the federal government.

The NSW Government re-inquiry into the feasibility of undergrounding transmission lines from renewable energy zones will be chaired by Greens MP Cate Faehrmann and is scheduled to make its findings in March next year.

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