If you follow energy in this region you will have seen the Investment Delivery Authority referred to in passing, usually by a proponent welcoming its endorsement. It is worth knowing what it actually is, which projects near you are in it, and what an endorsement does and does not get you. All of that is on the public record, and this page is built from it.
What the IDA is
The NSW Government established the IDA, in its own words, to
support and fast-track major investment projects in NSW
, and the first-round
announcement describes it as set up
to support the delivery of major projects and boost investment by cutting through red
tape
. It runs Expression of Interest rounds, evaluates what comes in, and endorses a
list.
What an endorsed project receives is administrative rather than legal. The announcement
says endorsed projects
receive specialist Government support from a dedicated concierge service, a planning
assessments team within the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure and from a
multi-agency Investment Taskforce based in the Premier's Department
. That is
coordination, attention and a way through the department, which for a project of this size
is not nothing.
The sentence to hold onto
It is in the release, and it tends to fall out of the coverage:
The IDA's endorsement is not an approval. All projects will still need to go through
full merit-based assessments and comply with relevant legislation and policies, both at the
State and Commonwealth level
.
That is the difference between a project being helped along and a project being allowed. Every planning test, every environmental assessment and every Commonwealth requirement still applies. A reader who takes an IDA endorsement as a green light has been misled, and not by the government, which said so plainly.
The Hunter's two
From the table of 16 projects published with the first-round announcement:
| Proponent | Project | Proposed location |
|---|---|---|
| AGL | Hunter energy hub | Muswellbrook Shire Council |
| Port of Newcastle Operations Pty Ltd | Clean energy precinct | Newcastle |
The Port of Newcastle project is the one the port describes on its own site as
undertaking front end engineering design and environmental impact statement studies
due for completion in 2026
, for hydrogen and ammonia production, storage and export.
When the endorsement was announced the port's chief executive said it came
as we near completion of the FEED and EIS studies
. That was in March. We have not
found a public record confirming the studies are finished, and we are not going to assume
it from a six month old quote.
The one that sounds like ours and is not
The same table lists Santos Ltd and Hunter Gas Pipeline Pty Ltd, a
Gas project
, with a proposed location of Narrabri Shire Council.
The corporate name carries this region, and the pipeline it refers to is the one long
proposed to run gas toward the Hunter, but the endorsed project's stated location is
Narrabri, roughly 400 kilometres north west of Newcastle. It is an easy thing to miscount
as a third Hunter project, and we have listed it separately for that reason rather than
because the distinction is trivial. Where a project sits determines which council assesses
it, which community is consulted and who lives with the construction.
The bigger number arrived three weeks later
The first round was presented as an energy round, and on its own terms it was: 14 of the 16 projects were energy, worth $34 billion, against two hotels worth $482 million. The first-round announcement noted that data centre and technology proposals from the same Expression of Interest round were still being evaluated and would be announced separately.
They were, on 27 March 2026: 15 data centre projects will progress through the
Investment Delivery Authority (IDA)
, and they are
collectively worth $51.9 billion
. That is half again the value of the energy round,
endorsed three weeks after it.
This is the part worth sitting with if you live in a region that supplies the grid. Data
centres are load. The same announcement records that
There are already 90 data centres operating in NSW, with the value of data centre
investments in the state growing 65% per year on average over the past three years
, and
that they account for 12% of all non-residential building investments
. The government
released a consultation paper alongside the endorsements, which is a fair signal that it
regards the energy and water implications as unsettled rather than solved.
Our view, on the facts above: the two tranches are usually reported as separate good news stories, and they are more interesting read together. In eight months the state has put its coordination machinery behind $34 billion of new generation and storage and $51.9 billion of new demand. Nothing in the public record says those two numbers were weighed against each other, and the honest position is that we do not know whether they were. It is a reasonable thing for a Hunter reader to want answered.
What is still open
The IDA has since run a Fuel Security Expression of Interest round and
market sounding, which its page records as closed:
Submissions were accepted from 1 June to 22 June 2026
, and the government is
reviewing them. A third endorsed list is therefore likely, and fuel security in this state
is not a topic that leaves the Hunter out.
We also could not establish, from public sources we could read, the current assessment status of either Hunter project. Neither appears on the NSW major projects register under the obvious names, but a search that fails is not evidence of absence, and we are recording it as a gap rather than a finding.
How we did this
Built from three NSW Government pages and one company page, all read on 28 August 2026. The project table is reproduced from the first-round ministerial release exactly as published, including the proposed locations, and the two Hunter rows are quoted from it rather than selected by our own judgement about what counts as the Hunter. Dollar figures, project counts and the data centre statistics are the government's own, with one exception stated here because the headline uses it: the combined figures are ours. The government published 16 projects worth $34.4 billion on 4 March and 15 data centre projects worth $51.9 billion on 27 March, in two separate announcements. Adding those gives the 31 projects and about $86 billion used above. The tranches are distinct, because the first-round release said the data centre proposals from that same Expression of Interest round were still being evaluated and would be announced separately, so nothing is double counted, and every component figure is stated in the article so a reader can check the addition. The distinction drawn about the Hunter Gas Pipeline rests on the location column of that table and on nothing else. We have not contacted the Investment Delivery Authority, any minister, AGL, the Port of Newcastle, Santos or Hunter Gas Pipeline Pty Ltd. No allegation is made against any party, and the opinion in the section above is labelled as ours and rests on the figures stated in the same section.
Sources
- NSW Government, NSW Government endorses 16 projects through Investment Delivery Authority (ministerial release, 4 March 2026, read 28 August 2026): the 16 projects and $34.4 billion; the 14 energy projects at $34 billion and two hotels at $482 million; the full table of proponents, projects and proposed locations reproduced above; the support endorsed projects receive; and the statement that endorsement is not an approval.
- NSW Government, NSW Government backs data centre investment, sets course for sustainable development (ministerial release, 27 March 2026, read 28 August 2026): the 15 data centre projects and $51.9 billion; the 90 data centres already operating; the 65 per cent average annual growth over three years; the 12 per cent of non-residential building investment; and the release of the NSW Data Centre Consultation Paper.
- NSW Government, Investment Delivery Authority (agency page, page dated 25 June 2026, read 28 August 2026): the IDA's description of its own purpose, and that the Fuel Security Expression of Interest round and market sounding closed, with submissions accepted from 1 June to 22 June 2026.
- Port of Newcastle, Clean Energy Precinct and NSW Government reinforces support for Port of Newcastle Clean Energy Precinct (4 March 2026, both read 28 August 2026): that the precinct is undertaking FEED and EIS studies due for completion in 2026 for hydrogen and ammonia, and the chief executive's statement that the endorsement came as the project nears completion of those studies.