NSW Roadmap Investor Day

NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap Investor Day

Nevenka Codevelle

Opening and context

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap Investor Day. It’s great to see so many of you here. We at ASL are pleased to be hosting you today.

I’m Nevenka Codevelle, Chief Executive Officer of ASL.

My role this morning is to frame the day – why we are here, and what the NSW Roadmap opportunity is for the market in the year ahead.

Acknowledgement of Country

Before we begin though, I would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we are meeting today – the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation – and pay my respects to Elders past and present. I also acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are here with us today.

As we work to deliver the infrastructure required for the energy transition, we recognise it is being built on First Nations lands and I acknowledge and respect their enduring connection to that land. We hope that all our work, collectively, provides long-term benefits for First Nations communities, through meaningful participation in the development and operation of our energy system.

Purpose of the day

Today is designed to be practical and forward-looking.

By the end of the day, we want you to walk away with a clear understanding of three things:

• NSW’s commitment to deliver the Roadmap, and the stability and certainty it provides for long-term investment decisions
• the scale and timing of the immediate Roadmap tender opportunities ahead and how you can position your project for success in those tenders, and
• how the Roadmap provides a suite of integrated planning, financing and delivery support mechanisms for projects to go from inception through to operation.

ASL role and what we’re seeking to achieve

A brief introduction to ASL and our role in the energy transition.

We are an independent delivery partner for governments, purpose-built to bridge policy ambition with market action to secure the infrastructure required for the energy transition.

Here in NSW, under the Roadmap, ASL serves as the independent Consumer Trustee. Our role is to secure and accelerate private investment in generation, storage and related infrastructure, with a clear and consistent focus on delivering long-term value for NSW electricity consumers.

One of the ways we do that, is by running tenders for Long-Term Energy Service Agreements (known as LTESAs) to deliver on targets and ambitions set in our Infrastructure Investment Objectives (or IIO) report. We’ll be hearing more about both the tender program and the infrastructure investment targets later this morning.

While ASL supports schemes nationally, today is firmly focused on NSW, and the scale of the opportunity ahead under the NSW Roadmap.

2026: a year of delivery

We need 2026 to be a year of delivery.

This year represents the largest tender activity under the Roadmap to date, and a real opportunity to move projects through financial close and into construction and operation.

The constraint in NSW is not the project pipeline. The challenge is conversion: taking projects from pre-FID to financial close, then construction and ultimately operation.

This next phase of the Roadmap is designed to unlock that conversion.

Progress under the Roadmap

Importantly, the Roadmap is already delivering.

Construction is underway in the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone. Transmission for the Hunter-Central Coast REZ is close behind, and several projects supported through LTESAs are already operating or nearing completion. We’ll be hearing from Energy Co, the REZ infrastructure planner and developer, later in the program.

Acknowledging headwinds

At the same time, we are realistic about the current environment.

Large-scale infrastructure delivery is challenging in any context, particularly at the pace and scale required to transform our energy system.

Cost pressures, supply chain constraints, network connections and near-term curtailment risks are real. They are shaping how projects need to be designed and financed, and they reinforce why stable policy settings and bankable contracting mechanisms matter so much.

Later today, you’ll hear how the integrated Roadmap can help with these headwinds – as well as the renewable energy zones and LTESA tenders, NSW provides planning approvals support through the Investment Delivery Authority, and capital and financing support through the Energy Security Corporation.

Call to action – the opportunity ahead

That brings me to the opportunity and the call to action.

In the coming weeks, ASL will open the largest generation tender under the Roadmap to date, alongside a separate tender seeking 12 gigawatt-hours of long-duration storage.

Together, these tenders represent a significant opportunity for projects to secure long-term revenue support, strengthen project bankability, and progress projects to financial close and delivery.

What ASL is looking for

Our Consumer Trustee Investment Priorities are focused on one clear outcome: enabling projects to reach financial close, get built and become operational, while ensuring they deliver long-term value for NSW consumers.

That means projects with strong fundamentals – credible delivery pathways, bankable structures, manageable risk, and proponents with the capability to build and operate at scale. We want to see bids structured in a way that are competitive while being sufficient in supporting project delivery, not just tender participation. We are looking for bids that deliver value for money, rather than just least cost.

Framing the day and the speakers

Today’s program is deliberately structured to give you a clear end-to-end view of the investment opportunity under the Roadmap – and how we move from policy ambition to projects reaching financial close, construction and operation.

Immediately following me, you will hear from Liam Ryan, Executive Director at the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Liam will speak to NSW Government’s enduring, legislated commitment to the energy transition and the Roadmap.

Building on that policy foundation, you will then hear from Melanie Koerner, ASL’s General Manager for System Planning and Financial Markets. Melanie will step through the long-term system plan, including the Infrastructure Investment Objectives and the emerging findings from the Generation Investment Outlook. This session is about understanding what the electricity system in NSW needs over the next decade, how stretch targets and attrition are being accounted for, and how that informs the size and sequencing of ASL’s tender program.

You will then hear from Thimo Mueller, ASL’s General Manager Commercial, who will focus on what that plan means in practice for proponents. Thimo will cover the restart of generation LTESA tenders in 2026, the role of high-value projects, and how proponents should think about bid structure, risk allocation and financeability. This session is squarely about how projects can position themselves to covert the LTESA tender opportunity.

Following morning tea, the focus shifts to the practical enablers for delivery. You will hear from EnergyCo’s Phil Bratby on unlocking new network capacity, including the Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone, and how to work with EnergyCo to unlock high-value network upgrades.

You will then hear from government partners on the planning and approvals landscape, including the role of the Investment Delivery Authority. Established by the NSW Government, the IDA is focused on accelerating approvals for major priority projects, including large-scale energy investments. IDA’s Tim Lisle-Williams will speak to its initial focus on major energy and other priority projects, and to the support being provided to a first tranche of large-scale energy investments progressing through the approvals process.

And finally, Paul Peters from the Energy Security Corporation will outline how the ESC is focused on crowding in capital to accelerate delivery, and how its investment priorities can support projects to progress through to delivery.

Our intent is that you leave today not only with a clear view of the scale and timing of the investment opportunity, but a strong understanding of how the different parts of the Roadmap fit together – and how your projects can progress through to financial close and delivery within that framework.

The Roadmap framework is stable and enduring. The project pipeline is real. And 2026 needs to be the year of project delivery.

With that, it is my pleasure to hand over to Liam Ryan. Please join me in welcoming Liam.

Thank you.

ENDS