VNI West: TCV applied for access rights and compulsory acquisition powers

Farmers have until October 21 to lodge submissions opposing TCV’s bid to gain access rights and compulsory acquisition of their land.

TCV has just lodged an application to become a transmission company, which if granted will give it the power to enter properties and compulsorily acquire land.

Transmission Company Victoria, charged with rolling out the controversial VNI West 500kV transmission line, has finally lodged an application with the Essential Services Commission to gain the statutory powers needed to compulsorily acquire and access hundreds of properties along the route.

The ESC has given landholders until October 21 to lodge submissions on whether it should grant TCV a transmission company licence.

If granted, the licence would give TCV the power under section 93 of the Electricity Industry Act 2000 to enter properties and compulsorily acquire transmission line easements.

Landholders have raised questions as to how the ESC can grant TCV a licence, when the company has already admitted it will be sold off to an unknown buyer before construction begins.

TCV, which is fully owned by the Australian Energy Market Operator, has stated it will only be engaged in designing the transmission line, and landholder and community engagement.

“At the appropriate point in time prior to the conclusion of the early works, TCV will be transferred to a third party (new owner) through a procurement process that is currently being developed by AEMO,” TCV’s licence application states.

“If TCV is granted a transmission licence, the intention is that TCV would continue to hold the transmission licence after being acquired by the new owner (subject to any conditions placed on the transmission licence by the ESC).”

However the application repeatedly states that it is the new owner that would build VNI West.

ESC guidelines demand it assess the technical capability of the licence applicant before issuing a licence.

Regional Victorian Power Alliance chair Vicki Johnson said: “How does the ESC judge the capability of a future unknown buyer and builder of VNI West?”

Up until now many farmers have refused to grant TCV’s contractors access to their land to undertake planning and survey work, hampering the Victorian Government’s bid to roll out VNI West to feed renewables from northwest Victoria and NSW into Melbourne.

Originally published as VNI West: TCV applied for access rights and compulsory acquisition powers