Almost a dozen solar farms in western Victoria and NSW have had output deliberately cut or start dates delayed because of poor grid capacity.

Last September, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) abruptly slashed the output of five solar farms - four in Victoria and one near Broken Hill in NSW - to half their nominated capacity of just shy of 350 megawatts.

Gannawarra Solar Farm in western Victoria, was one of the plants to have its output cut in half in September 2019 by AEMO.

In addition, as many as six other projects in Victoria or southern NSW have been told by AEMO to wait nine months or more before they can be connected to the grid, an industry executive said. A senior official at a separate investment group confirmed similar numbers of delays.

"AEMO approved all of these new generation connections and the generators’ only apparent ‘crime’ - for which they are now being severely economically punished - is that they followed through on Connection Agreement contracts approved by AEMO," said the executive, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid being penalised for speaking out.