The Central-West Orana REZ is Australia’s first declared renewable energy zone. It will be serviced by transmission network infrastructure procured by the Energy Corporation of NSW (EnergyCo) under a regulated concession model awarded to ACEREZ, a partnership comprising ACCIONA, COBRA and Endeavour Energy. This is the first use of a regulated concession model in New South Wales.
The synchronous condensers are critical pieces of infrastructure in the transmission network for the Central-West Orana REZ, delivering system strength to support the connection of up to 7.7 Gigawatts (GW) of intermittent generation from the renewable energy zone. The Central-West Orana REZ project will initially deliver 4.5 GW of new network capacity by 2028.
As critical long lead items, the synchronous condensers needed to be procured before signing of the project documents with EnergyCo, in a first-of-its-kind process overseen by the Australian Energy Regulator and subject to the New South Wales Government procurement guidelines. Negotiations were with sophisticated international original equipment manufacturers to secure a record-breaking number of synchronous condensers in a market characterised by global high demand and limited supply.
Gilbert + Tobin leveraged its team’s market-leading expertise in transmission, utility-scale renewable energy projects and government procurement to assist ACCIONA COBRA Joint Venture, a joint venture comprising ACCIONA Construction Australia Pty Ltd and COBRA Asia Pacific Pty Ltd, to achieve a successful outcome on the synchronous condensers procurement.
The team was led by partner Lixian Liang with support from partners Clare Pope and Lesley Sutton and special counsel Jen Bradley.
Lixian commented:
Our grid is evolving to meet the challenges brought by moving away from synchronous generation like coal-fired and gas-fired power, and towards asynchronous generation like renewable energy sources. On the Central-West Orana REZ transmission project, synchronous condensers will be used to create the system strength and grid stability needed to connect generators and initially transmit up to 4.5 GW of renewable energy from the Central-West Orana REZ to energy users. It was a privilege to work alongside ACCIONA COBRA Joint Venture and their partners on this first-in-kind project.
We congratulate all parties involved in this important project and look forward to continuing to support our clients in shaping the future of renewable energy in Australia.
