EnergyCo_new - Voice for Walcha

EnergyCo

EnergyCo design for New England REZ transmission project.

EnergyCo has said its EIS for the transmission lines will go on public exhibition, Thursday, 16th October 2026.

The exhibition period is only 28 days. The community, including Voice for Walcha, Walcha High Country Guardians, Walcha Council and Brendan Moylan, has made repeated requests for a 60 day period. We haven't heard back from EnergyCo or the Planning Department so at this stage, we have to assume we will only have 28 days to respond.

We will help you. If you have never made a submission before, or you aren't sure where to start, get in touch and we will walk you through it. We will send a dedicated email during the exhibition period with guidance. Help with the group submissions.

Both Voice for Walcha and Walcha High Country Guardians will lodge major submissions. If you have a special area of interest or expertise, or you are simply willing to help collate information from the EIS, please reach out. Many hands make light work, and this document will be huge.

> See Resources page for a guide to how to make a make a submission

THERE ARE NO PROJECTS THAT NEED TO CONNECT TO CENTRAL-SOUTH HUB

This screen grab from the EnergyCo website, shows only Skye Ridge Wind project as the generator interest around the Central South Hub, west of Walcha. This project now has very little land host support, and is unlikely to proceed.

Why is Central-South in Penny Sharpe’s plan?

Central-south hub was included in the original design because at the time, there were multiple projects around Walcha included in the generator expressions of interest carried out in Q4 2022. All these projects, except Winterbourne and Skye Ridge (formerly Ruby Hills) have been withdrawn.

It is our view that Penny Sharpe is building a $1.5billion hub that is redundant and based on outdated information. It is this hub that the lines are connecting to.

Since this time, all of these projects, except Winterbourne Wind and Skye Ridge, have been removed from the register.

Winterbourne Wind have lost their financial backer, and look stranded. In any case, they are connecting to the existing Transgrid line 85, north of the project. They are NOT connecting to the new REZ infrastructure.

Skye Ridge Wind looks equally unlikely to proceed, but if it does, it is able to connect to Central Hub, 10km to the north, near Kentucky.

Identifying generation and storage developers.

EnergyCo carried out an Expression of Interest (EOI) process in Q4 2022 to identify renewable energy generation and storage project that are likely to be positioned to delivery energy generation in line with EnergyCo's target for the New England REZ.

Quote taken from the EnergyCo website > link

The screenshot below is a sorted section of the October 2022 Generator Information, following the Expression of Interest from Energy Co, showing the ambitious goals of Walcha Energy. This helped form the basis of Energy Co’s design. It is our view that this information, now outdated, has corrupted the transmission design process, and that the design needs to be updated to reflect current market conditions and generator interest.