‘Monumental mistake’: Energy experts slam power projects in Victoria’s west
In response to the proposed Western Renewables Link and VNI-West, energy experts have warned the projects could double the cost of electricity transmission, leading to power bill pain for families.
Victoria
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Plans for controversial massive power lines and transmission projects in Victoria‘s west have been slammed by two senior energy experts as a “monumental mistake”.
They also flag that the projects could double the cost of electricity transmission, which would lead to power bill pain for families.
The warnings were outlined in a submission from Professor Bruce Mountain, director of the Victoria Energy Police Centre, and Simon Bartlett AM, a former member of the National Electricity Market‘s reliability panel.
The pair co-authored their submission while public consultations are open for the Western Renewables Link and VNI-West, which both aim to improve the nation‘s electricity grid by better connection to renewable energy centres.
But the WRL has been slammed by rural communities who want its massive power lines to be built underground or along roads, particularly where they are planned for farming land.
The VNI West project will build a new connection point between Victoria and NSW and only attracted controversy after it floated a proposal to build a new transmission line connecting it to the WRL, rather than upgrade existing routes.
In their submissions, professors Barlett and Mountain label both projects a “monumental mistake” in their current forms.
They warn that it will “drastically increase the exposure of Victoria’s power system to natural disasters and terrorism risk and double transmission charges to cover the cost of construction and maintenance.
As these transmission costs soar, the price would then be passed on to consumers.
The projects would also waste existing capacity in the grid, between Latrobe Valley and Melbourne, by forcing the development of solar and wind further away in the west, further escalating prices, their submission found.
“The development of WRL-VNI will delay the transition to renewable electricity in Victoria,” they say.
“It will do this by forcing new renewable entry to wait on the completion of this massive transmission augmentation (which is likely to take eight years to complete).
“It also undermines the development of onshore renewable generation in Gippsland and adjacent areas and thus wastes the capacity of Victoria’s most valuable electrical transmission infrastructure connecting the Latrobe Valley to Melbourne.”
Both professors also dismissed claims the projects would assist the network in preparing for the upgrade of Snowy Hydro.
They claimed power from Snowy 2.0 would “become choked by the congestion” on VNI West.
The submission also says Australian Energy Market Operator‘s Victoria Planner (AVP) had “badly underestimated” the costs of its proposals, particularly its preferred routes.
“On benefits, AVP has produced an implausible analysis,” they say.
“AVP’s claim of WRL-VNI benefits depend on unrealistic assumptions on the location of new renewable generation in Victoria, and they depend on unreasonable penalisation of renewable production in the Gippsland Renewable Energy Zone.
“This penalisation of Gippsland has been a feature since AEMO’s first Integrated System Plan in 2018.
“The Latrobe Valley 500 kV and 220 kV network to Melbourne are jewels in Victoria’s electrical crown. This radial network to Victoria’s main load centre already has plenty of available hosting capacity, unlike almost all of Victoria’s transmission network except the 500 kV network to Portland.
“It can also easily be expanded along already vacant easements, to nearly double its current 9,450 MW (summer) rating, at no great cost.”
Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano called on the government to justify why these projects were being fast-tracked while these concerns existed.
“The Victorian Government must explain to farmers why they are being forced to endure needless anxiety and fear over having their land carved up by power lines that may provide no benefit to the state,” she said.
“Farmers are white hot with anger over how they are being treated with utter disrespect in this process. They have every right to be.
“The Victorian Government has failed to properly plan for the transition to renewable energy whilst imposing its targets on the people and economy of Victoria and farmers are being forced to wear the cost.
“We must get this transition to renewables right. The consequences of trampling over farmers rights will be a double whammy of skyrocketing food and electricity prices for all Victorians.”
Daniel Andrews said AEMO would look at the report and “study it carefully”.
But the Premier said there was a need to upgrade the state‘s transmission systems.
“It is no good generating abundant, very low or zero emissions energy if you can‘t then transmit it to where it’s needed,” he said.
“That‘s not just at the endpoint, that’s all the way along those transmission corridors.”
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