The State Government will establish a $1billion Energy Security Corporation in the upcoming state budget as part of a $1.8 billion package to fast-track the state's clean energy transition.
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The Energy Security Corporation will focus on co-investment in storage and other projects to help improve the reliability of the electricity network, rather than outright ownership of renewable energy assets.
Investments could include community batteries, similar to the Beehive project at Kurri Kurri, and virtual power plants. These projects will allow households and communities to pool electricity generated from rooftop solar, reducing their reliance on the grid and cutting their power bills.
"This will accelerate the transition to renewables, to ensure NSW households and communities have a reliable supply of clean, affordable electricity, energy minister Penny Sharpe said.
"This is a once-in-a-generation transition that requires massive investment and coordination from government and cooperation with the private sector."
It will be seeded with a $1 billion reservation in Restart NSW.
Ms Sharpe said the commitment would ensure homes and businesses had reliable power at the lowest possible cost.
"We're not just investing in large, grid-scale projects. We want to give households and communities more power to make choices about how they generate and use energy," she said.
"That's why the Energy Security Corporation could invest in projects like community batteries to help more households use their rooftop solar to become self-sufficient."
Australia's first community battery project was announced in Kurri Kurri in early 2021.
The Beehive project allows 500 participants to buy, sell and trade rooftop solar energy from each other and also trade directly with the one megawatt battery.
The Energy Security Corporation announcement comes a day after the government confirmed it would enter into discussions with Origin Energy about the possibility of keeping Eraring Power Station open beyond its scheduled mid-2025 closure date.
The Government will also commit an additional $800 million to the Transmission Acceleration Facility to connect the state's Renewable Energy Zones (REZ) to the grid sooner and bring forward the benefit schemes for communities.
The funding injection will support early works in the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone, around Dubbo.
This renewable zone, the first in NSW, is expected at its peak to support around 5,000 construction jobs and bring up to $10 billion in private investment in the region by 2030.
The funding will also maintain momentum in the other planned REZs, the Hunter Transmission Project and the Waratah Super Battery.
The Transmission Acceleration Facility speeds up the delivery of new transmission projects by funding early work in the zones, along with funding community benefit schemes.
Investments will be ultimately recouped from the private sector developers of the REZ projects once projects reach financial close. That money will then recycled back into the facility to support the development of future REZ projects.
Ms Sharpe said on Tuesday that, while the government would do everything it could to accelerate the rollout of renewable energy projects, it accepted there was a case for keeping Eraring open.
"We accept the recommendations from Cameron O'Rielly that we will engage about the future, but we come from the starting point that we don't want coal-fire (power) to be open one day longer than it needs to and not one extra cent that needs to go into it from the people of NSW."
Ms Sharpe said the potential cost to taxpayers of keeping Eraring open and for how long would be determined by talks with Origin.
"There are some that say that it doesn't need to stay open but the bigger picture here is that we need to start the conversation. I'm not going to speculate on what the costs could be. We start the figure at zero and we go from there," she said.
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Matthew Kelly
Matthew Kelly has worked as a journalist for more than 25 years. He has been working as a general reporter at the Newcastle Herald since 2018. In recent years he has reported on subjects including environment, energy, water security, manufacturing and higher education. He has previously covered issues including the health and environmental impacts of uncovered coal wagons in the Hunter Valley, the pollution of legacy of former industrial sites and freedom of information issues.
Matthew Kelly has worked as a journalist for more than 25 years. He has been working as a general reporter at the Newcastle Herald since 2018. In recent years he has reported on subjects including environment, energy, water security, manufacturing and higher education. He has previously covered issues including the health and environmental impacts of uncovered coal wagons in the Hunter Valley, the pollution of legacy of former industrial sites and freedom of information issues.
