A new report plots the opportunities for renewable energy projects across Australia.
AEMO’s 2025 Enhanced Locational Information (ELI) report (PDF) highlights increasing locational risks and opportunities across the National Electricity Market (NEM), with a sharp focus on curtailment, congestion, and hosting capacity.
The report consolidates public data from AEMO’s own forecasts, industry publications, and government plans, aiming to streamline early-stage investment decisions. It is a key output of the Energy Security Board’s transmission access reforms.
“There are approximately 20 gigawatts of projects currently at the application to connect stage, as well as the 300 GW of proposed future projects,” said AEMO Executive General Manager of System Design, Merryn York.
“This report presents key locational data to help investors understand where their projects are most likely to succeed.”
The report reveals that, while most NEM transmission lines did not face major congestion in 2024, bottlenecks persisted – particularly in Western NSW and North West Victoria.
Curtailment affected over 25 per cent of output for several solar farms in these areas. In contrast, more than 60 per cent of all grid-scale renewables across the NEM experienced curtailment under 1 per cent.
Curtailment is forecast to remain elevated in South Australia and Victoria through 2026–2028 due to system security constraints and limited export capacity. Modelling shows improvement by 2030 to 2035 as key ISP transmission projects are commissioned.
AEMO has also introduced a “network hosting capacity” metric, estimating the maximum additional renewable generation each of 158 locations can accommodate before hitting 20 per cent curtailment.
Results favour hybrid configurations – solar or wind paired with two-hour battery energy storage systems (BESS) – which typically offer higher hosting capacity. However, in highly congested areas, even hybridisation shows diminishing returns.
To support decision-making, AEMO has mapped marginal loss factors (MLFs) and introduced robustness scores indicating the sensitivity of existing MLFs to new nearby generation.
The ELI is not a substitute for site-specific system studies or financial models. AEMO is seeking feedback by 1 August and will host a stakeholder webinar on 23 July.