Project overview

The Oven Mountain Pumped Hydro project is located on private land within the New England Renewable Energy Zone, adjacent to the Macleay River between Armidale and Kempsey.

It will bring much-needed, long-duration storage and reliability to the National Electricity Market, generating up to 900 MW of electricity and storing enough water for up to eight hours of dispatchable energy at full generation for 100+ years.

Pumping and releasing water between two reservoirs on private land (away from the Macleay River) means there’s no need to dam the Macleay River for the project, and it won’t have a net impact on local water use.

It will also result in many market and environmental benefits, including an annual reduction of approximately 400,000 tonnes of CO2-e in generation emissions.

It will take approximately five years to construct and we’re aiming for it to commence operating around 2030.

Project elements

Construction or upgrades needed, if the project is approved:

  • upper and lower reservoirs
  • an underground hydroelectric power station
  • spillways
  • power waterway
  • access tunnels
  • telecommunication services and local and regional roads
  • a transmission line upgrade back to Armidale
  • a new 15km transmission line to connect to the electricity grid

Progress

The project has reached the final step of the approvals phase (see below) before the state and Commonwealth governments provide final approval for the project to proceed. For detailed information on the project’s design and environmental and technical studies conducted to date, please visit the Resources page.

1
September 2020

Critical State Significant Infrastructure designation 

2
January 2021

Scoping Report

3
February 2021

Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements issued

4
April 2022

Scoping Report Addendum 

5
June 2022

Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements amended 

6
Commenced 2021

Environmental Impact Statement site and field investigations

7
August 2023

Environmental Impact Statement submission to Department of Planning and Environment

8
19 September – 20 October 2023

Formal exhibition of the Environmental Impact Statement by the Department of Planning and Environment

9
October 2023 – August 2024

Environmental Impact Statement response to Submissions and Project Amendment Report

We are here
10
From August 2024
We are here

Planning Department prepares Assessment Report

11
TBC

NSW Ministerial determination 

12
TBC

Commonwealth Ministerial determination

13
Target mid-2025

Construction commencement (subject to approval)

14
Target 2030

Commercial operations

15
TBC

Decommissioning and remediation

Big regional benefits

turbines

This project is expected to inject more than $40 million into the regional economy, employ up to 800 people during construction, and generate up to 95 direct and indirect jobs once operational. Click here for more details.

Power station

It’ll also deliver improvements to local roads and provide an emergency water supply for bushfire fighting.

solar panel

And we’ll establish a regional benefit sharing scheme for the project, which will be designed with the community.