EnergyCo’s public page on the Strategic Benefit Payments Scheme says the eligible infrastructure declared to date includes the Hunter Transmission Project. The Guidelines are the document that actually governs the scheme, and Appendix A is the authoritative list. It carries detail the summary does not.
The name
In Appendix A the entry is headed
Sydney Ring North (Hunter Transmission Project)
.
That ordering matters more than it looks. A landholder in Singleton or Cessnock who has read
about the Hunter Transmission Project and goes looking for it in a list of eligible projects is
searching for the words in the brackets. The project is described as a
High capacity 500 kV transmission line of around 100 kilometres
between Bayswater in the Upper Hunter and Olney in the Lower Hunter
, built
to connect the State's existing 500 kV transmission lines
. It is unmistakably the same
line. It is just filed under the name of the thing it does for Sydney.
Nobody has been appointed to pay it yet
The scheme pays through the network operator, not through EnergyCo. For this project the
Guidelines record the Project Operator To be appointed
.
Being fair about that: it is not unique to the Hunter. Of the seven eligible projects in Appendix A, four have an operator named, three do not, and the Hunter line is one of the three alongside the enabling Central-West Orana works and the New England REZ network project. Of the four that are named, three are Transgrid and one is the ACEREZ Partnership.
It is still the practical answer to a reasonable question. If you are a landholder wanting to know who will be sending you a payment direction form each year, the answer today is that the entity has not been appointed.
How early the Hunter section actually is
| Section | Between | Voltage | Delivery status |
|---|---|---|---|
| HTP-1 | Eraring power station and Bayswater substation | 500 kV | Network planning |
The Guidelines define that status. Network planning means a
a Regulatory Investment Test for Transmission application is being prepared for submission
and determination by the Australian Energy Regulator
. In other words the economic case has
not yet been submitted to the regulator, let alone determined.
That sits alongside, and does not contradict, what we reported from AEMO’s Integrated System Plan, where the project is actionable with a 2029 target and needs two ministers’ approval. Two documents, two different lenses on the same early-stage project.
The Guidelines are careful that this field is not a commitment. They state the delivery
status is included for information purposes and do not affect the operation or
interpretation of the Guidelines
, and that it is
correct as at the date of publication of this version of the Guidelines
, pointing
readers to the project operator or AEMO for current information.
How we made this
Read from the Strategic Benefit Payment Guidelines, June 2025 version, a 57 page PDF published by EnergyCo and named on its own scheme page as the document the payments are made in accordance with. Downloaded and read on 24 August 2026. Every quoted passage is verbatim. The counts of appointed and unappointed project operators are ours, from reading all seven project entries in Appendix A.
One figure to flag rather than resolve. The Guidelines describe the line as around 100 kilometres; our earlier reporting from AEMO’s Integrated System Plan used 110 km. The Guidelines wording is explicitly approximate, so these are not necessarily in conflict, and we have quoted each source as it stands rather than picking one.
We have not read the easement acquisition process, the Gazette notice under which the Guidelines were published, or any individual landholder agreement, and we have not contacted EnergyCo, Transgrid or any landholder. This is general information about a published scheme, not legal or financial advice.