NSW PEP to speed the energy transition

The NSW Government has introduced the Energy Legislation Amendment (Prioritising Renewable Energy) Bill 2026 (Renewable Energy Bill) in an attempt to remove obstacles and accelerate the delivery of renewable and transmission infrastructure, to support the state's transition from coal fired power to renewable energy.

What is the Renewable Energy Bill?

The Renewable Energy Bill allows for the Energy Minister to declare specified transmission, renewable energy or storage projects a Priority Energy Project (PEP).

Once declared a PEP, further changes introduce greater flexibility to planning approval pathways, including by permitting the Planning Minister to declare a PEP as State Significant Development or State Significant Infrastructure and allowing the Planning Minister to direct planning authorities to prioritise assessment of the PEP, to ensure the delivery of the infrastructure sooner.

What projects can be declared a Priority Energy Project?

The New South Wales Government has introduced the Energy Legislation Amendment (Prioritising Renewable Energy) Bill 2026 (Renewable Energy Bill) to Parliament in an attempt to remove obstacles and accelerate the delivery of renewable and transmission infrastructure and support the state's transition from coal fired power to renewable energy. The Renewable Energy Bill proposes to implement such changes via amendments to the Electricity Supply Act 1995 (Electricity Supply Act) and the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act).

The amendments proposed to the Electricity Supply Act will enable the Energy Minister (or delegate) to declare specified projects as a Priority Energy Project (PEP) including:

• Transmission and distribution infrastructure;
• Renewable energy generation; and
• Energy storage or firming infrastructure including, battery storage, gas-fired firming generation or pumped hydro, but excluding, firming infrastructure that requires coal-fired or nuclear energy generation.

Key proposed amendments to the EP&A Act

Once a project is declared a PEP, the proposed amendments to the EP&A Act will assist in speeding up the approval process as follows:

1. The Planning Minister may directly declare a PEP to be State Significant Development (SSD) or State Significant Infrastructure (SSI) without first obtaining and making publicly available advice from the Independent Planning Commission (IPC).
2. The Planning Minister can request the IPC hold a public hearing about PEP projects (thereby removing the appeal right to the Court for both proponents and objectors if the IPC determines the PEP).
3. The Energy Minister may also recommend to the Planning Minister that a particular PEP be declared State significant infrastructure.
4. The Planning Minister may issue directions in relation to a PEP.

Changes to benefit sharing requirements

The legislative amendments aim to strengthen the NSW Benefit Sharing Guidelines to allow benefits to be shared more securely and ensure they are delivered fairly and consistently across the state, by giving the Planning Minister the ability to direct any planning authority as to the amount of land to be dedicated, the monetary contribution to be made or other material public benefit to be provided by a developer under a planning agreement.

If you would like to know more or understand how this may impact your project, please contact our Energy Transition or Environment & Planning teams