Central West Pumped Hydro Project

The Central West Pumped Hydro Project (Project) is a pumped storage hydro project in the early stages of project assessment and development, located between Bathurst and Lithgow, within 2.5 hours of Sydney.

Once completed, the Project will store energy during periods of surplus electricity in the grid and generate energy during periods of high demand or where renewable generation is low, by using the stored energy under a daily cycle regime, which is expected to generate sufficient energy to power over 153,000 homes. The Project will also generate approximately 200 jobs during the construction phase and 30 jobs on an ongoing basis once the Project is operational.

The Project is expected to deliver local benefits to the community such as upgrades to existing local infrastructure and roads.

How does pumped hydro work?

Pumped hydro utilises two bodies of water, known as reservoirs, which are interconnected and located at different elevations, with a hydro power station situated near the lower reservoir.

Electricity is generated when water is released from the upper reservoir through the hydroelectric turbines. When surplus electricity is being produced by the electricity grid, for instance when there is excess variable energy from solar or wind, the water is then pumped from the lower reservoir back up to the upper reservoir using this excess electricity.

Using pumped hydro to create energy will assist in ?evening out? the variable energy generation resulting from the increased presence of wind and solar in the electricity grid, while facilitating the decarbonising of the national electricity grid and contributing to lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

The EPBC Referral was submitted to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water on 26 September 2022. The CWPH Project has been determined as a Controlled Action. The determination can be found HERE

• NSW Government Awards ATCO's Pumped Hydro Project with $9M Recoverable Grant
  
• A Water Access Fact Sheet is available HERE

The latest CWPH Community Update is available HERE