The project

Neoen Australia Pty Ltd propose to develop a battery energy storage facility at Blocks 1634 and 1635 Belconnen. The proposal includes construction, operation and maintenance of a large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS), of up to 300 megawatts on a site adjacent to Stockdill Drive, Belconnen, ACT. The following components are proposed:

  • A series of approximately 146 batteries and 73 inverters, each the approximate size of a shipping container (12m long x 2.5m x 2.5m)
  • Internal access road and car parking for service vehicles
  • Electrical substation
  • Demountable office
  • Water tank (20,000L)
  • Internal fencing and perimeter fencing
  • Underground cabling connecting the BESS substation to the TransGrid Stockdill Substation

EIS process

The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) details the anticipated environmental impacts of a development, as well as proposing avoidance and mitigation measures. A proponent prepares an EIS to enable decision makers to understand the environmental consequences of a proposed development. The EIS is required to address matters raised in the scoping document for the proposal. More information on the EIS process can be found on the EIS overview page.

A draft EIS has now been lodged for this project. The application number for this draft EIS is EIS202100027. The draft EIS is now open for comments until 17 October 2022.

Bilateral assessment

The Commonwealth Government determined that this proposal is a controlled action requiring assessment and approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) before it can proceed.

The Commonwealth decision specified that this EIS will be assessed by the ACT Government under the bilateral agreement between the Commonwealth and ACT Government (EPBC 2021/8884).

Public consultation

In accordance with section 218 of the Planning and Development Act 2007, the public consultation period for a draft EIS is a minimum 20 working days. Due to the volume of documentation, the public consultation period for this draft EIS is 30 working days, commencing on 5 September 2022 and closing on 17 October 2022. Within this period, the public can view the application and provide written comments (a representation) on the proposal.

Any matters raised in representations, made during the public consultation period, must be addressed by the proponent in a revised EIS to be considered by the planning and land authority. Representations received after public consultation closes may be provided to the proponent for their consideration.

Representations should be addressed to the Chief Planning Executive and made in one of the following ways:

Representations should include the name and contact details of the person making the comments and the draft EIS application reference number (EIS202100027).

Publication of representations

Under section 220 (2) Planning and Development Act 2007, the planning and land authority must—

  1. make a copy of the representation available on the authority website
  2. give a copy of the representation to the proponent of the development proposal as soon as practicable after the public consultation period for the draft EIS ends.

In complying with the obligation under section 220(2), the authority discloses the representations, which may include personal information on its website and to the proponent. You may request to have part or all of your representation excluded from the public register under Sections 411 (Restrictions on public availability – application, comments, submissions, etc) or 412 (Restrictions on public availability – security) of the Planning and Development Act 2007.

The request for exclusion must be in writing and clearly identify what you are seeking to exclude and how the request satisfies the exclusion criteria. The Authority may approve or refuse to approve an exclusion application.

If your request for exclusion is approved the Authority will seek to protect the information from disclosure. However, the Authority cannot guarantee that the information will not have to be disclosed pursuant to a legal obligation.

The Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate’s (EPSDD) Information Privacy Policy contains information about how you may access or seek to correct your personal information held by EPSDD, and how you may complain about an alleged breach of the Territory Privacy Principles.

Disclaimer: As detailed above, section 220 of the Planning and Development Act 2007 requires the Planning and Land Authority to publish representations. The authority is not able to verify the truth of any facts alleged in any representation and publication of a representation does not indicate acceptance of the opinions expressed by the author of any representation.

Application and supporting documents

Public Representations

No public representations have been received at this stage.

As highlighted above, in complying with the obligation under section 220(2), the authority will disclose public representations here as they are received.