Oven Mountain Pumped Hydro Energy Storage

Leading approvals for an ‘off river’ pumped hydro energy development located on private land adjacent to the Macleay River approximately 60 km south-east of Armidale and 75 km north-west of Kempsey.

OMPS Pty Ltd in partnership with Alinta Energy | New South Wales

Project overview
The Oven Mountain Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Project is a pumped hydro-electric scheme that will provide up to 900 megawatts (MW) of electricity generating capacity and up to 12 hours of energy storage. The project also includes a transmission connection to Line 965, the regional transmission line running between Kempsey and Armidale. The project is located on privately-owned land in the Armidale Regional Local Government Area, approximately 60 km south-east of Armidale. In October 2020, the project was declared critical State significant infrastructure (CSSI), having been deemed by the NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces to be essential to the State for economic, environmental or social reasons. It is anticipated the project will play a critical role in ensuring the stability of the future electricity network, complementing other local renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind.
Our involvement
EMM has been appointed as the lead consultant to manage the approvals process for the project, including preparing the environmental impact statement (EIS) and the majority of the associated technical assessments supporting the EIS. The EMM team is working closely with the OMPS team to manage key project risks including water licensing for operations, site access, and stakeholder engagement with Registered Aboriginal Parties. Our water licensing team engaged early with required agencies to help aid in driving changes to legislation and inputs into the water requirement modelling. The project team also established an access strategy for the project that included the establishment of a track maintenance program and upgrades to internal site roads. Our highly experienced Aboriginal heritage team initiated engagement with Registered Aboriginal Parties early to guide them through the legislative process and keep communication open and transparent throughout the project lifecycle.
Technical solutions
  • Acoustics
  • Air Quality
  • Aboriginal Heritage
  • Contamination Assessment and Remediation Management
  • Ecology
  • Environmental Planning and Approvals
  • Groundwater
  • Geochemistry
  • Historical Heritage
  • Social Assessment and Performance
  • Soil, Land Resources and Erosion
  • Spatial Solutions
  • Surface water
  • Transport Engineering and Planning
  • Landscape Architecture & Visual Assessment