Transmission industry has learned lessons, Lumea chief says, as industry yearns for infrastructure
The conduct of transmission line developers has been criticised but a leading company says the industry has drastically improved in recent years.
Australia’s transmission industry has improved the way it consults and compensates rural communities affected by new high-voltage lines, one of the country’s biggest developers has insisted, as Origin Energy’s chief executive said the infrastructure is critical if the transition away from coal is to be delivered.
Australia must develop around 10,000km of high voltage transmission lines by 2050 to deliver on net zero emissions targets, but infrastructure projects have been curtailed amid pockets of rural opposition.
In a bid to break the deadlock, states and territories have offered ever larger compensation packages but criticism of developers continues to swirl.
Lumea executive general manager Craig Stallan said the industry has learned plenty of lessons around how to consult with regional towns.
“We have certainly as an industry got a lot better over the last two or three years,” Mr Stallan told The Australian’s Energy Nation forum.
“I think what everyone in the industry requires is certainty. We need to understand the community needs and we have rerouted a number of corridors as a result.”
Earlier this year, Energy Infrastructure commissioner Andrew Dyer said transmission lines were a particular bone of contention for many communities, especially as it encouraged a plethora of renewable energy developers to move into the region to seek landowner approval and some of them have behaved like “cowboys”.
The federal government has said it will impose a tough new ratings system to govern developers.
Even so, many transmission line projects remain years behind schedule.
Projects in Victoria on average are four years behind their initial timetable, with South Australia the best-performing state. But even there projects are running a year behind what had been initially envisaged.
The delays come despite Labor spending $20bn on its Rewiring the Nation Fund that offers developers cheap finance and loans to accelerate work, a policy that Labor vowed would deliver the transition and save households almost $300 a year in power bills.
To break the logjam, states have increased their compensation packages.
Queensland has taken the most aggressive approach, offering landowners who host energy transmission infrastructure funding linked to the toll on the value and the use of their property. Neighbours will also be eligible for compensation.
The payments will be led by Powerlink, the state-owned transmission system operator, which said average payments will be substantially higher than those offered by Victoria and NSW, which have offered landowners $200,000 for every kilometre of land crossed by a major infrastructure project.
Mr Stallan said the transmission lines are on course to deliver Australia’s 2030 ambitions. The federal government has set the ambitious target of having renewable energy generate 82 per cent of the country’s electricity by 2030.
To deliver on those goals, expedited development of transmission lines are critical, Origin Energy CEO Frank Calabria said.
“Transmission lines are the critical path,” Mr Calabria told The Australian’s Energy Nation forum.
Mr Calabria said much of the needed renewable energy projects earmarked by authorities will now require the completion of transmission lines.
The Australian Energy Markets Operator estimates the country will need to 57GW of grid-scale solar and wind generation capacity to be installed by 2030 – a rise from the current capacity of 19GW.
Developers are, however, unwilling to commit millions or even billions of dollars of capital to projects before they have certainty of being able to connect to transmission lines.
Analysis by The Australian earlier this year showed almost 20 per cent of Australia’s most advanced renewable energy developments, with a combined capacity larger than the country’s biggest coal power station, have experienced delays within the past year.
More Coverage
Government must focus on serious productivity growth
How does a nation as rich in minerals, energy and skills as Australia lose its standing as a global resources hotspot?
Federal Labor on a collision course with miners over green push
The federal government has made a powerful enemy for itself in the west after the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA said it would fight Labor’s push for so-called nature-positive laws.