Tamworth council to consider asking LGNSW to call for renewable energy benefit-sharing rates 25% higher plus indexation, and an extra 15% for First Nations priorities

For a large solar farm, wind farm or battery in NSW, the state expects developers to work out what goes to the community from a set rate: so many dollars per megawatt, every year the project runs. On Tuesday 13 October Tamworth's councillors are due to consider asking the rest of NSW local government to push for a higher rate. The agenda for the 13 October meeting recommends that the council authorise the following motion to be submitted to Local Government NSW, for that body's annual conference in November.

The motion is listed in the report under Cr North's name. It begins: That Local Government NSW calls on the NSW Government to reform the renewable energy benefit-sharing framework to increase the current contribution rates by 25% in addition to accrued indexation, provide an additional 15 % for First Nations priorities. It goes on to ask the state to confirm yearly indexation from the guideline's 2024-25 base year, through negotiation, construction and operation, and to require periodic independent reviews. The report is a recommendation to councillors; nothing is decided until they vote.

What the motion asks for

The one-sentence motion is backed by five numbered points in the report's supporting information. Two of them go further than the headline numbers: the first would turn the new rates into a minimum, and the fifth reaches infrastructure the state's rates do not cover at all.

The five reform points behind the motion

As numbered in the supporting information to item 8.5. The words in quotation marks are the report's.

• 1. Rates up by a quarter, and made a minimumRaise the solar, wind and eligible stand-alone battery rates by 25%, in addition to accrued indexation, and set them as minimum council-administered contributions for whole-of-community benefit, with scope to negotiate higher+25%Floor
• 2. An extra 15% for First Nations-led initiativesCalculated on the revised council contribution, with priorities set through engagement with Traditional Owners, Local Aboriginal Land Councils and other local Aboriginal organisations, and additional to council-administered benefits+15%On top
• 3. Indexation and independent reviewsYearly indexation from the 2024-25 base year, and periodic independent reviews of whether the rates cover council infrastructure, workforce and service costsCPIReview
• 4. Cost pressure from concentrated developmentFunding for extra costs councils face when projects compete for materials, contractors and workers, without substituting for baseline council funding, and recurrent state funding for councils' extra coordination and assessment responsibilitiesCostsState funds
• 5. The gapsContribution arrangements for transmission and other renewable energy infrastructure not covered by existing benchmarks, including affected regional service centres outside REZ boundariesGapsNew rates

What it would mean in dollars

The report sets out the arithmetic itself, starting from the rates in the state's Benefit Sharing Guideline of November 2024. The guideline says total funding for benefit-sharing should be $850 per megawatt per annum for solar energy development, $1,050 for wind and $150 per megawatt hour for stand-alone batteries in a rural zone, based on installed capacity and paid over the life of the development and indexed to the Consumer Price Index.

The guideline's rates now, and the motion's

Per year, before CPI indexation. Large-scale solar and wind per megawatt (MW); eligible stand-alone batteries per megawatt hour (MWh).

Proposed contribution rates, from the table in item 8.5

Project type	Guideline now	After 25%	First Nations 15%	Total
Solar, per MW	$850.00	$1,062.50	$159.38	$1,221.88
Wind, per MW	$1,050.00	$1,312.50	$196.88	$1,509.38
Battery, per MWh	$150.00	$187.50	$28.13	$215.63

The report explains why the total is 43.75% and not 40%: The total increase is 43.75%, rather than 40%, because the additional 15% is calculated on the amount after the 25% increase.

To give that a scale, two examples, both our arithmetic and both before indexation. A hypothetical 100 MW wind farm would go from $105,000 a year at the guideline rate to $131,250 as the council-administered contribution, plus $19,687.50 for First Nations-led initiatives: $150,937.50 in all. The Armidale East battery near Metz, which the Planning Portal describes as having a capacity of up to 377 MW / 2,310 MWh, would go from $346,500 a year at the guideline's battery rate on its full 2,310 MWh to $433,125, plus $64,968.75, or $498,093.75 in all. The motion does not say whether new rates would apply to projects already in the system, so these are illustrations, not forecasts. We worked through that battery's community fund in an earlier piece.

A ceiling now, a floor in the motion

The headline percentages are the easy part to see. The larger change is in the first supporting point. As the guideline is written, its rates are an upper bound on the total, not a starting point.

How each document frames the rates

The state's guideline as it stands, and the motion's first supporting point.

• NSW Benefit Sharing Guideline, November 2024, page 24The total of neighbourhood and local community benefits should not exceed the rates outlined aboveCeilingState, now
• Tamworth's motion, supporting point 1The revised rates as minimum council-administered contributions for whole-of-community benefit, with scope to negotiate higher contributions reflecting local circumstances and cumulative pressuresFloorProposed

The guideline's full sentence says the total value, calculated by adding together the proposed funding amounts for any neighbourhood and local community benefit programs, whether run by the council or anyone else, should not exceed the rates outlined above. That tension is not new in this region. At Armidale East we found that Armidale Regional Council's own framework sets a minimum while the state sets a maximum, and that whether both could be met depended on which capacity figure was used.

The guideline also says when the state will look at its rates again: We will review the policy approach (including the benefit-sharing rates outlined in section 4 of this guideline) if changes are made to the infrastructure contributions or the local government land rating systems that materially affect large-scale renewable energy projects. That trigger is a change to rating or contributions, not a change in costs. The motion's call for periodic independent reviews would add one. The guideline was still the version linked from the Department's Renewable Energy Planning Framework page when we read it on 10 October 2026.

What the report's own evidence says, and does not

The supporting information makes a cost case and is unusually careful about its limits. It cites IPART's forecast of 3.5% asset cost growth for councils in 2026-27 against 2.8% for other operating costs, then adds These are forecasts, not realised Tamworth costs. It cites ABS figures showing national road and bridge construction prices up 4.5% in the June quarter of 2026 while quarterly CPI rose 0.6%, then adds it is not evidence that renewable projects caused that increase, or that costs have risen 25% since November 2024. Those IPART and ABS figures are the report's account of them; we have not read the underlying releases for this piece.

The proposed increase is a policy response to the inadequacy of the current framework, rather than an estimate of inflation since its introduction.

The report also says Tamworth's answers to a NSW parliamentary inquiry in August 2025 sought substantially higher rates, regular review and coordinated contributions across projects, so the motion continues a position the council has taken before.

What the guideline does not cover, in Tamworth's own pipeline

The guideline sets rates for three kinds of project only. It says it does not prescribe benefit-sharing rates for pumped hydro projects, though benefit-sharing is strongly encouraged, and that it does not apply to electricity transmission infrastructure. The motion's fifth point is aimed at that gap, and both kinds of project are in front of the state in Tamworth Regional now. On our count from the Planning Portal's list for the local government area, eight energy projects there sit at a stage before determination, leaving aside modifications.

Energy projects in Tamworth Regional not yet determined, by what the guideline says about them

Project names and stages as the NSW Planning Portal lists them, read 10 October 2026. Modifications to approved projects are left out.

• Bendemeer Wind FarmWind: $1,050 per MW a year in the guidelineRate setPrepare EIS
• Bendemeer Solar Farm, Garoo Solar FarmSolar: $850 per MW a yearRate setAssessment
• Lambruk Solar FarmSolar: $850 per MW a yearRate setPrepare EIS
• Tamworth Battery Energy Storage SystemBattery: $150 per MWh a year, for a stand-alone battery in a rural zoneRate setResponse to Submissions
• Burgmanns Battery Energy Storage SystemBattery: $150 per MWh a year, for a stand-alone battery in a rural zoneRate setPrepare EIS
• Wala Wala (Dungowan Valley) Pumped HydroPumped hydro: no rate prescribed; benefit-sharing encouraged project by projectNo ratePrepare EIS
• New England REZ Transmission ProjectTransmission: the guideline does not apply. The Portal lists seven local government areas for itNot coveredPrepare EIS

Our view

The 25% is a bargaining number, and the report is honest enough to say so: it calls the increase a policy response rather than an estimate of inflation, and attaches a caveat to each piece of cost evidence it offers. That candour is to the council's credit, but it means other councils are being asked to back a figure the report does not derive. The independent reviews in the third point are what could put the rates on evidence, and they deserve more weight than the percentage. The change with the most reach is the one that is not in the headline numbers: turning the state's ceiling into a floor. On the Armidale East example, the state's maximum and a council's minimum can already collide. Making the state rate a minimum, with room to negotiate up, would remove the state cap that a council's minimum can run into, and it is the point most worth a clear answer from the state. The fifth point matters most for Tamworth itself, where a pumped hydro project and the REZ transmission line are both at the Prepare EIS stage with no rate in the guideline.

What happens next

The timetable, as the report and the guideline give it

The hollow point is the next step the documents describe.

• November 2024The state publishes its Benefit Sharing Guideline, with rates indexed from 2024-25.
• Wednesday 30 September 2026The date by which, the report says, LGNSW encouraged councils to submit motions.
• Tuesday 13 October 2026, 6pmTamworth Regional Council meets in the Nemingha Room of the Lands Building, 25-27 Fitzroy Street, with item 8.5 on the agenda.
• Sunday 25 October 2026The closing date for motions, the report says.
• 22 to 24 November 2026The LGNSW Annual Conference at the WIN Sports and Entertainment Centres, Wollongong. Tamworth's voting delegates are the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, Cr North and Cr Rodda.

If councillors carry the recommendation, the motion goes to LGNSW, whose conference positions, the report says, form a policy platform that guides LGNSW in its advocacy on behalf of the local government sector. A conference motion changes no rate by itself; the guideline is the state's to change. The minutes of the 13 October meeting will show whether the motion was carried, amended or lost.

Sources

1. Tamworth Regional Council, Business Paper, Ordinary Council Meeting, 13 October 2026 (55-page PDF, read 10 October 2026): the meeting notice and order of business, and item 8.5, Motion for the Local Government NSW Annual Conference 2026 (pages 34 to 38), with the motion, its five supporting points, the cost evidence and the proposed rates table.
2. NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, Benefit Sharing Guideline, November 2024 (29-page PDF, read 10 October 2026): what it applies to (pages 8 and 9), its review of the policy approach (page 22) and the benefit-sharing rates (page 24).
3. NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, Renewable Energy Planning Framework (web page, read 10 October 2026): links the November 2024 guideline as the current Benefit Sharing Guideline.
4. NSW Planning Portal, Major projects, Tamworth Regional (57 results over seven pages, read 10 October 2026): the energy projects and their stages.
5. NSW Planning Portal, Armidale East Battery Energy Storage System, SSD-65058714 (project page, read 10 October 2026): the capacity used in our worked example.

How we did this

We downloaded the 13 October business paper from Tamworth Regional Council's business papers page on 10 October 2026 and kept copies of it, the guideline, the framework page and the Planning Portal pages. The motion is a recommendation in an agenda; councillors may carry, amend or reject it. The figures in the rates table are the report's, rounded to the nearest cent; we rechecked them against the guideline's rates. Our arithmetic: the 100 MW wind example multiplies the per-megawatt rates by 100; the Armidale East example multiplies the per-megawatt-hour rates by 2,310 using the unrounded 15% ($28.125 a MWh), so it differs from the report's rounded $28.13 by a few dollars; both are before CPI indexation and are illustrations, not amounts any project has agreed. The count of eight projects is ours, from the Portal's 57 listed results for the area, excluding modifications and anything shown as determined or withdrawn. The report's IPART, ABS and parliamentary inquiry references are described as the report gives them; we did not read those documents for this piece. We did not contact the council. The “our view” section is opinion based on the documents described.