First of three big battery projects for Tamworth heads to public exhibition

A 300 megawatt Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) put forward by energy developer Equis has been put on public exhibition.

The public exhibition period for the project runs until Wednesday, December 13, and follows nearly two years of community consultation.

Equis said its community consultation found 42 per cent of local residents "concerned" by the project, with 25 per cent not concerned and 33 per cent unsure.

The main issues locals flagged were impacts to visual amenity, noise, and land values.

Equis says it will work to mitigate these concerns through a raft of measures including changes to the design to include physical noise barriers, planting native vegetation to use as a visual buffer, and other initiatives.

The renewable developer said it will also provide funding for local community projects.

The Calala BESS is the first of three planned for the area to get to the public exhibition stage.

The other two are being developed by Iberdrola Australia and GMR Energy. Both are on Burgmanns Lane and are still in the process of preparing Environmental Impact Statements.

The BESS is expected to create around 170 jobs during construction and seven permanent roles once completed.

In planning documents the developer says it commits to prioritising "local employment" for these roles.

While the full value of the project is not known, it is expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

If approved, the proposed Calala BESS will sit on 8.9 hectares of land formerly used for horse grazing.

It will store enough electricity to power 80,000 homes for about four hours and will be connected to the state's energy grid via the nearby Tamworth Substation.