Snowy Hydro to purchase 40 percent of Golden Plains Wind Farm energy and green certificates

Global clean energy enterprise TagEnergy has signed a significant renewable Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), entering a deal that will see Snowy Hydro take 40 per cent of the energy and green certificates (LGCs) generated by the 756MW first stage of Golden Plains Wind Farm.

This transaction is the first PPA for the Golden Plains Wind Farm since the first stage of the 1,300MW mega project near Geelong, Victoria achieved financial close in November 2022 on a merchant basis, which was unique at the time.

It comes as TagEnergy negotiates further PPAs for the project that has generated significant interest for its quality and location.

Franck Woitiez, Chief Executive Officer, TagEnergy said achieving financial close of Golden Plains Wind Farm East without the need for PPAs proved the effectiveness of its innovative investment approach.

“Now, this landmark PPA with Snowy Hydro proves our strategy to progressively contract the energy production during construction and operation. It also reflects the confidence major industry players like Snowy Hydro have in our large-scale renewables project expertise,” Mr Woitiez said.

“We are proud to enter this agreement with Snowy Hydro as we both work to ensure energy security and accelerate the transition to renewable energy as part of a rapidly growing industry,” he said.

The transaction has helped enable Snowy Hydro to secure a significant portion of its energy and LGC needs with a quality project that is at an advanced stage.

Snowy Hydro Chief Executive Officer, Dennis Barnes, said “our partnership with TagEnergy is a significant step in supporting the decarbonisation of the National Electricity Market and further enabling Australia’s transition to renewables.”

Snowy Hydro Chief Commercial Officer, Gordon Wymer, added, “TagEnergy has succeeded in developing an investment structure that provided optimal outcomes for all stakeholders. This has enabled Snowy to continue to expand its ability to provide clean, green, cost-effective renewable energy to our customers, and paves the way for further cooperation with TagEnergy on other developments.”

Construction on the $2bn, 756MW stage one development featuring 122 turbines officially began in April 2023 following months of early works including road upgrades. It is expected to start producing renewable energy in the first quarter of 2025.

The estimated annual emissions abatement is an average 770,000 tonnes CO 2 -e, or more than 23 million tonnes CO 2 -e over the project’s 30-year lifetime.

About Snowy Hydro

Snowy Hydro is an Australian-owned fully integrated energy company that owns and operates over 5,500MWh of generation capacity through the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme, along with gas and diesel assets across New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia which are operated as peaking generation assets. These generation assets, and the nature of their operation, help to “keep the lights on” by providing on-demand generation in the National Electricity Market (NEM) when it’s most needed and assist in providing market-leading energy storage and capacity products that de-risk market volatility in the NEM.

Snowy Hydro, through its retail brands, Red Energy and Lumo Energy, is also the fourth-largest retailer in the NEM (by customer numbers). These businesses now serve more than 1.25m customers across the country.