The New South Wales Coalition has announced a new energy plan that effectively ends the longstanding bipartisan consensus on the energy transition, scaling back regional renewable energy zones in favour of new ones that would be centred in the state’s major cities of Sydney, Newcastle, and Wollongong.
The centrepiece of the state Coalition’s new energy plan is to effectively scrap the New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) – which they describe as “over-budget and delayed” – and create “city REZs” including the Sydney City Renewable Energy Zone, and the acceleration of additional zones in Newcastle and Wollongong.
The Coalition would also prioritise upgrades to existing transmission infrastructure, and dump the proposed 500kV transmission line corridor between Walcha and current Bayswater Power Station near Muswellbrook.
The move is significant as it was the former Coalition government, under the drive of former energy minister and then state treasurer Matt Kean, that designed the renewable infrastructure roadmap, which plotted a path to replace the state’s ageing coal fired power generators with a mix of wind, solar and storage.
That plan was implemented with the support of Labor, which has continued with the policy plan since winning government in 2023, albeit with some changes including the near four-year delay to the closure of the Eraring coal generator, the biggest in the country.
