A major battery project proposed for construction in the centre of Sydney has been approved for development by an independent panel, after it was sent there by protests from residents of two tiny towns located around 800 kilometres away.
The New South Wales Independent Planning Commission (IPC) on Friday granted consent to the development application from network company Ausgrid to build a 200 megawatt (MW), 431 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery in Homebush, next to an existing sub-station and right next to the M4 Western Freeway.
The $215 million battery will be located 13 km from the Sydney CBD and not far from the geographical centre of the Sydney metropolitan area.
But that did not stop the project from attracting 12 submissions opposing its development from Moulamein, a tiny town with a population of less than 500 that is about 806 km from Sydney in the south-west of NSW. Six more came from the nearby small town of Barham, 823 km from Sydney, and 19 came from interstate.
In NSW, a project must be referred to the IPC if 50 or more parties object to its development, regardless of where those parties live. In the case of the Homebush battery energy storage system (BESS), just one of the 59 objections came from a party living within 5 km of the project site.
