The National Energy Market is undergoing a period of significant change. The NSW Government is committed to ensuring that this change delivers a secure, reliable and affordable energy supply for the State.
To support this outcome, it is important that the State’s policy and planning frameworks promote competitive market outcomes and do not create unnecessary barriers to entry for new generation technologies.
Continued innovation in renewable energy technologies, particularly solar, has seen this technology become significantly cheaper, increasing its popularity as both small-scale home rooftop systems and larger utility-scale projects.
The increased installation of renewable generation technologies, which are intermittent in nature, is driving the development of storage technologies, such as batteries that are able to firm up generation from renewable sources.
Under the NSW planning system, the development of electricity infrastructure is primarily governed by the State Environmental Planning Policy (Infrastructure) 2007 (Infrastructure SEPP). The key aim of the Infrastructure SEPP is to facilitate the effective delivery of electricity infrastructure across NSW by providing regulatory certainty and efficiency.
The Department of Planning, Industry and the Environment (DPIE) identified several opportunities to improve the Infrastructure SEPP to facilitate the efficient delivery of emerging electricity infrastructure in NSW. This Explanation of Intended Effect (EIE) set out the identified areas for improvement and sought community input into the proposals.
The amendment was finalised on 17 April 2020, further information can be found on the NSW legislation website