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NewsAurecon celebrates milestone as Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone powers ahead

9 April 2025 | 2 min

Asia Pacific design, engineering and advisory company, Aurecon, has supported the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) project in reaching Financial Close, a transmission project with unprecedented geographical reach and capital investment in Australia.

Set to become the first and one of the largest renewable energy zones in Australia, the Central-West Orana REZ transmission project is expected to initially unlock up to 4.5 gigawatts of new network capacity – the equivalent of powering two million homes – and bring up to $20 billion in private investment to NSW by 2030.

The Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone project will build high-capacity transmission lines and energy hubs to deliver power from solar and wind farms to consumers.

As Lead Designer, Aurecon has been supporting ACEREZ, a partnership of ACCIONA, COBRA and Endeavour Energy, for the past two years undertaking the detailed design of high voltage transmission lines and associated towers, substations and generator connection switching stations, emphasising resilience to adverse events.

Aurecon’s Energy Transmission & Distribution Industry Leader, Renene Windsor said renewable generation supply was needed to replace New South Wales’s ageing coal fired power stations, and that the Central-West Orana REZ was a transformative Critical State Significant Infrastructure project.

“New transmission infrastructure is the backbone of Australia’s renewable energy transition, transporting electricity from renewable sources to where it's needed. Our involvement underlines Aurecon's focus on innovating to deliver Australia’s energy transition. We have collaborated locally and globally across industry and governments on a list of major projects, developing first-of-its-kind renewable energy infrastructure for decades,” commented Windsor.

The Central-West Orana REZ transmission project will build new high-capacity transmission lines, energy hubs and supporting infrastructure to transfer power generated by solar and wind farms to electricity consumers. The REZ, which is approximately 20,000 square kilometres in size and centred around Dubbo and Dunedoo, is expected to be operational by 2028.

New renewable energy transmission infrastructure will enable electricity generators, such as solar and wind farms in the REZ to export electricity to the rest of the network.

"The magnitude of the project requires both solid technical knowledge and a comprehensive grasp of Australia’s energy transition journey."
Michael Diggle, Principal, Energy

Michael Diggle, Principal, Energy at Aurecon highlighted the collaboration between Aurecon and the procurement and construction teams to achieve an efficient, fit-for-purpose and constructable design.

“By optimising design aspects, Aurecon has been able to contribute to the project’s efficiency and certainty in the construction delivery program. What set us apart from others is our experience designing high voltage transmission lines, transmission towers and substations, including a network-wide implementation of IEC 61850-substation control system.

“The magnitude of the project requires both solid technical knowledge and a comprehensive grasp of Australia’s energy transition journey.”

Over 200 of Aurecon’s designers, engineers and advisors have been working on the Central-West Orana REZ project. At its peak, the REZ is expected to support around 5,000 construction jobs in the region.

With a large portfolio in transmission infrastructure, Aurecon has recently worked on Project EnergyConnect, HumeLink Transmission Project and New England REZ.