Today we commenced public consultation on Ausgrid’s revised contingent project application for a new subtransmission substation (the ‘Wallumatta STS’) to address increased customer demand in the Macquarie Park area.
Ausgrid has proposed a revised amount of $147.3 million ($ real, 2023–24) of capital expenditure and the recovery of $12.0 million ($ nominal) over the 2024–29 period to deliver the Wallumatta STS project. The application includes costs to acquire land, construct a 132/33kV subtransmission substation, and facilitate the connection to 132kV feeders.
Our role is to review the prudency and efficiency of the proposed costs within the application to ensure consumers pay no more than necessary. Following this consultation process, we will make a determination on the contingent project application as soon as practicable.
Invitation for submissions
We invite interested parties to make submissions on the revised contingent project application for the Wallumatta STS by Friday, 5 December 2025.
Submissions should be emailed to: contingentprojects
aer [dot] gov [dot] au (subject: Submission%20on%20PEC%20contingent%20project) (contingentprojects[at]aer[dot]gov[dot]au)
Background
A contingent project application outlines the amount of revenue a business seeks to recover from its customers to deliver a project. This project relates to Ausgrid receiving formal customer connection applications from data centres that cannot be supplied from the existing network infrastructure.
Ausgrid has completed a Regulatory Investment Test for Distribution (RIT-D) process for this project. The final project assessment report and cost-benefit analysis for this project is available on Ausgrid’s website.