MOD 2 - Mudgee Maintenance Facility

This plan is based on lies & deception - part of the Fake Green RenewaBULL Energy Poverty Grift & Ponzi Scheme/Scam that’s cursing Australia.
Energy Co & TransGrid are absolute CROOKS!!

This is a ridiculous waste of electricity consumer dollars. Mudgee is no where near the transmission project. It's not even on the transmission project map. Safety and traffic impacts have not been considered. It should not go ahead.

Stop all funds to this project!

NSW electricity consumers and taxpayers can not afford this project. The CWO REZ tranmission has gone from estimated costs of $650 millon to $5.5 Billion, what next? We want an inquiry into the costs blowout and those responsible should forfeit their jobs. This is project is simply a cash cow for all the foreign companies involved (starting with ACE).

This project is full of empty promises and endless expenses. NSW electricity consumers come first, not foreign companies and politicians with vested interests.

This is a total waste of taxpayers money. EnergyCo have already forced landowners off their properties to build the Merotherie monster substation and workers camp. This project never had social licence and will never provide electricity consumers with affordable reliable electricity.

The NSW Government said this project would cost $650 Million and now estimates the costs have blown out to $5.5 Billion, the NSW Government also said that this would reduce our electricity costs - how? transmission costs are 40% of our electricity bills, the NSW Government said we would have reliable affordable electricity on wind and solar - yet no one else in the world is on this path? The NSW Government said that projects like this would employ locals and benefit the local community - yet 90% of employees for this project will come from outside the community and the community has rejected the industrialisation and environmental destruction of our landscape.

About time the NSW Government gave us the facts not the spin. Does this project have a blank cheque book? Is the objective of this project to ensure profits for the likes of ACE (dominated by foreign companies) and the foreign developers destroying our environment with thousands of hectares of solar panels, wind turbines and batteries? This project is not in the public interest.

Please find attached objection to the Mudgee Maintenance Facility.

I object to the MOD2 - Mudgee Maintenance Facility for the following reasons:
I object to the entire Central-West Orana REZ Transmission Project , including the maintenance facility why?
The Central-West Orana REZ transmission project requires high voltage transmission lines, which can easily become flammable and are like the 6 out of 11 transmission lines that caused the 2009 Black Saturday fires that killed 173 people, injured 414 more and did untold damage throughout Victoria, with two of the fires exploding like Hiroshima bombs.:

Just over sixteen years ago, on the 7th of February 2009, 6 out of the 11 Black Saturday fires that took 173 lives and did untold damage to property, livestock and wildlife, were started by high voltage transmission lines. This was such a devastating, large scale catastrophe that a Royal Commission was called to investigate why these fires happened and how they could be prevented in the future - VBRC_Summary_PF.pdf, Remembering Black Saturday - 15th anniversary | Emergency Victoria. 

Cameron Stuart of Brittanica.com on the 20th of January 2025 (Black Saturday bushfires | Causes, Deaths, Map, & Location | Britannica), described the horrific, catastrophic, devastating Black Saturday fires in detail:

"On February 7 Victorians were told to brace for the “worst day” in the state’s history: weather forecasters warned of a record heat wave with temperatures soaring to 115.5 °F (46.4 °C), combined with gale-force winds of up to 56 miles (90 km) per hour. That day more than 47 major fires erupted across the state, 14 of them claiming lives or causing significant damage. The most deadly conflagration, known as the Kilmore East fire, which claimed 121 lives, was sparked by a faulty power pole near the township of Kilmore East, 37 miles (60 km) north of Melbourne. The flames quickly jumped a major highway and roared into a forest, where they turned into a giant fireball, dwarfing the resources of local firefighters, who could only flee in its path. 

Aided by steep slopes and powerful winds, this fire raced through a series of townships, including Kinglake (where 38 people died), Strathewen (27 perished), and St. Andrews (12 were killed), catching residents by surprise and trapping many in their homes. Some sought to escape by car as the fires approached, but dozens died on the roads as they were overtaken by the fire, which leapt 330 feet (100 metres) above the tree line and was powerful enough to kill with radiant heat from nearly 1,000 feet

Late in the afternoon a sudden change in wind direction pushed the fire to the northeast, bringing new towns into its path. A parallel fire, known as the Murrindindi fire, also blew to the northeast, swallowing the unsuspecting tourist town of Marysville, where 34 people lost their lives. Fire experts said that these two fires alone released energy equivalent to that of 1,500 atomic bombs like the one dropped on Hiroshima, Japan."

Did you read that? 

"Fire experts said that these two fires alone released energy equivalent to that of 1,500 atomic bombs like the one dropped on Hiroshima, Japan."

Also, 2025 SUBMISSION TO CSIRO'S DRAFT 2024-25 GENCOST REPORT states:
"Conclusions and Recommendations
Independent Engineers, Scientists and Professionals, 11 February 2025
1. GenCost fails to demonstrate that it is ‘Australia’s most comprehensive’ report on NEM costs. It
fails to include major cost elements funded by government and consumers. Its levelised cost of
electricity (LCOE) method is aimed at providing investors with theoretical marginal investment
indicators limited to investor costs, not national electricity costs, yet undisputedly this document
is misused by government to justify its energy policies. GenCost should be much more forthright
upfront in the disclaimer and executive summary regarding its true purpose.
2. GenCost’s claim that wind and solar are the cheapest form of electricity generation are completely
contradicted by whole-of-system ISP capital cost cash flow estimation – by a large margin as
indicated in Appendix 2 to this submission and other reports. CSIRO needs to explain the reasons
for this stark difference or clearly state that it is geared to investor interests and is not fit for
purpose to underpin national energy policy. The warning on page 57 states that cash flow cost
models are more realistic but is not sufficiently prominent.
3. GenCost employs highly contestable assumptions and data concerning capacity factors, capital
cost factors, facility lifetimes and spillage costs. CSIRO should rebalance the assumptions and data
for consistency to ensure it does not unduly favour renewables.
4. GenCost fails to account for Consumer Energy Resources (CER), low voltage distribution network
upgrades and disposal/remediation costs, which form a very large part of whole-of-system costs.
CER by itself is 60% of all solar and battery capacities in AEMO’s ISP. GenCost must include these
costs – they are not free. A purposeful report should include all costs to the national economy,
regardless of who pays.
5. GenCost’s assumption that investors will have free access to previously built network resources is
completely unrealistic in normal markets and particularly considering that grid design must be
based on worst-case conditions, when all resources are at maximum utilisation. CSIRO must
reconsider the whole GenCost approach to renewable integration costs.
6. GenCost’s use of an unspecified electricity system model running 9 years of historical weather
related data to determine maximum integration costs based on the simple assumption that the
grid will be reliable is a major mistake for many reasons.
a. The 2011-2019 AEMO data does not encompass all worst-case conditions, which recent
freely available data from both Australia and overseas indicate. Wind droughts and solar
outages are a common-mode failure affecting the entire NEM.
b. AEMO’s use of a simulation model in the Integrated System Plan (ISP) illustrates the pitfalls,
which are detailed in Appendix 1. CSIRO must provide details of the model used and how the
criteria for reliability must include maintaining a viable dispatchable reserve margin under
all conditions to protect against facility outages. The failure of the ISP to define worst-case
conditions inherent to proper high reliability system engineering casts serious doubt on the
integrity of its modelling and grid design with direct implications for GenCost.
7. Both GenCost and the ISP are important documents having major influence on energy policy with
impacts on the entire economy and the security of all Australians. The criticality of the NEM to
the well-being of the entire nation deserves rigorous and independent accountability by the same
type of certification authority used in other fields such as aviation, transportation,
telecommunications, civil works and the financial industry. CSIRO should support the
establishment of a proper independent regulatory body to review, hold accountable and certify
plans and implementation of the NEM."

It is for these very reasons I object to the modification of the Mudgee Maintenance Facility that Central-West Orana REZ Transmission Project requested.

For the benefit of the taxpayers and NSW electricity consumers this project should be halted immediately UNTIL:
1. There is an inquiry into the cost blow out. How can a project go from $650 million to $5.5 Billion and everyone stay silent? The project is only in its infancy so are we looking at another Snowy Hydro 2 situation?
2. The NSW Government complete a cumulative impact study for the region, this is now long overdue. They can add to the study the cumulative impact of the costs on taxpayers and electricity consumers.
3. the decision makers involved are sacked immediately, no one in business survives this sort of rort.

ACE REZ are an foreign controlled profit consortium. Has the NSW Government written them a blank cheque? with no consequences?

The only thing this project will achieve is decades of high electricity prices (40% of our electricity bills is transmission costs), never ending maintenance costs, intermittent electricity supply, increased fire risks for the region, decreased ability to use aerial fire fighting resources during a bush fire, permanent environmental damage given the amount of mined resources required for the project and the clearing of easements, devaluing of land, eroding health issues for those unfortunate property owners who have to live in this permanently changed environment and changing our rural landscape into an industrial zone.

IF Mudgee want this modification....give them the whole lot including the enormous substations, towers and the workers camps.

I strongly object to this project at Mudgee as I think (if it has to happen) it should be on land at the Merotherie Hub which is already owned by EnergyCo. This would cut travel expenses and utilise the facilities that will exist there when built.

I object to the maintenance facility being constructed and operated at 1 Marsh Avenue Caerleon (Mudgee) when EnergyCo own a large area at the Merotherie Hub. Dunedoo area is more effected and closer to the transmission project. Surely some of the camp can be utilised to house this facility to save travel and money. The point of the project was meant to look after the most effected community.

I object to this proposed modification as the community have not been adequately consulted and as cumulative impacts have not been assesed.