Hunter Transmission Project approval welcomed

The new 110km line will run from Bayswater to Olney, plugging Hunter homes and businesses into new wind and solar generation as the region's coal-fired power stations wind down over the next decade.

BZE spent close to a year working with communities and industry across the Hunter before releasing its report, Powering up the Hunter, last May, which found the Hunter can decarbonise without job losses provided transmission capacity keeps pace with industry's own timelines. BZE has backed the HTP throughout as key to keeping the lights on and keeping power affordable for local industrial jobs.

BZE CEO Heidi Lee said the project gave Hunter industry, already committed to cutting emissions, a real way to do it.

"Local manufacturers and heavy industry here have already said they want to decarbonise. This line is what actually lets that happen, connecting them with the power they need to keep factories online and jobs local." Ms Lee said.

Ms Lee said the changes made to the project's route in response to community feedback, cutting the number of directly affected properties from around 70 to fewer than 20 and avoiding nearly all local Littlejohn's Tree Frog breeding habitat, according to EnergyCo, showed engagement improving.

"This is what it looks like when people are listened to. It doesn't mean every concern is gone, but the route today is better because people engaged in good faith conversations about the trade-offs in getting things right," she said.

Ms Lee said the HTP was only half of the job. The New England REZ transmission project, which will supply the power that HTP carries south, is still going through federal approval.

"If HTP is going to deliver what it's meant to deliver, legitimate concerns about the route need to be addressed. That's the conversation that needs the same energy this one just got," Ms Lee said.

Ms Lee said the real lesson of HTP was the coordination behind it: community, government and industry working through the same process together, rather than catching up to each other after the fact. This project is a proof point for the kind of ahead-of-need infrastructure planning its National Action Plan is calling for across Australia's industrial regions.

-ENDS-

Contact: Heidi Lee, CEO. 0418 258 081 or heidi.lee@bze.org.au