OMPS New England PHES Benefits Study

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The Oven Mountain Pumped Hydro Energy Storage (OMPS PHES) project will undertake a study analysing the benefits of a 600 megawatt (MW) ‘off-river’ PHES facility in the New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), with up to 12 hours storage. The OMPS New England PHES Benefits Study acknowledges that the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has identified an increasing need for flexible, dispatchable electricity generation sources to bridge the energy reliability gap and firm up variable renewable generation.NSW is expected to lose 86 per cent of its coal-fired generation capacity by 2040. AEMO modelling indicates an increased likelihood of loss of electricity supply impacting up to 770,000 NSW customers from 2023 onwards as existing coal retires and reliability declines.Furthermore, low cost renewables such as wind and solar are increasingly supplying our needs but these variable sources of generation need to be ‘firmed up’ by fast response generation that can be turned on and off as required.There is also an immediate need to unlock constrained electricity network areas to allow new generation onto the grid. The New England REZ has an estimated 3,800 MW of renewable opportunities but only 300 MW of grid capacity remains in the system. This REZ, like other areas on the grid, requires more system strength and security services. A lack of these services constrain existing and inhibit further deployment of low-cost renewables.

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