AEMO, in its role as Victorian Planner, has completed the tender process to procure non-network services in the Western Victoria Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) on behalf of the Victorian Government’s Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) Development Plan (RDP).
Following a competitive process, Transmission Operations (Australia) 3 Pty Ltd (TOA3), a subsidiary of Australian Energy Operations Pty Ltd, has been awarded a System Support Agreement (SSA) to provide up to 600 megawatts (MW) of services to strengthen the power system and increase generation capacity in the Western Victoria region.
TOA3 will provide services from a synchronous condenser tailored solution located at the Ararat Terminal Station. The project is expected to commence commercial operations in late 2025 with a contracted service life of 20 years.
In August 2021, a competitive tender process commenced, calling for expressions of interest. After evaluating responses, shortlisted parties were requested to submit detailed submissions and participate in subsequent discussions with a tender evaluation team.
Based upon these interactions, and input from the State on the Social Procurement and Local Jobs First tender response, TOA3 was identified as the preferred tenderer.
The Victorian Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change made a Ministerial Order under the National Electricity (Victoria) Act 2005 (NEVA) requiring AEMO to undertake procurement processes for three contestable projects for services to strengthen the system as well as three sets of non-contestable minor network augmentations.
This included the procurement of specified non-network services in the Murray River, Western Victoria and South West REZs.
ENDS