SA-NSW power interconnector: Project EnergyConnect to go ahead after approval from ElectraNet

Cheaper power and a renewable energy boom are predicted after the long-awaited final approval for a $2.3bn high-voltage electricity link between SA and NSW.

A long-awaited high-voltage electricity link between South Australia and NSW will go ahead – with promises of cheaper power and a renewable energy boom – after approval from transmission firm ElectraNet.

Delivering the key green light for an interconnector promised for 20 years, ElectraNet has committed to its $457 million slice for the SA side of the $2.3bn, 900km power link.

The project is tipped to save SA households $100 a year – but bills would increase by $6, then $17, a year before the savings kick in – and shore up more than $5bn in renewable energy projects.

ElectraNet’s approval follows NSW’s TransGrid on May 31 agreeing to build its state’s side of the power transmission line – called Project EnergyConnect – that would link Robertstown in SA and Wagga Wagga in NSW, with a spur line to Red Cliffs in Victoria.

Energy Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the interconnector would deliver cheaper, cleaner, more reliable energy to SA households and businesses, plus spark a renewable energy jobs boom.

“EnergyConnect will be a freeway for green energy produced in South Australia and exported to New South Wales,” he said.

“South Australia is a good global citizen and will become a net exporter of renewable energy as part of our aspiration of net-100 per cent renewables in the 2030s.”

The Australian Energy Regulator on May 31 agreed the project can cost $2.28bn, which is $55m less than a revised estimate from the companies proposing the project.

Mr van Holst Pellekaan seized on the approval to attack the former Labor government for failing to progress the interconnector, despite the-then-opposition leader Mike Rann in the lead-up to the 2002 state election vowing to build the link.

“Shadow Minister for Energy Tom Koutsantonis, who was a member of the Rann Opposition, should do the honourable thing and hand in his resignation today,” Mr van Holst Pellekaan said.

But Mr Koutsantonis, a former state treasurer who was first elected in 1997, has argued the interconnector will drive up power prices and force the closure of SA power stations including Torrens Island and Pelican Point.

“Just so everyone knows the outcome of building interconnector to NSW. The economic base case is the closure of all SA-based gas generators, so we import all our thermal power from interstate,” he argued on Twitter on May 31.

“The $2.4bn for this new line will be paid for through your electricity bills.”