Inside the underground cable push coming for Victorian farmland

An energy company wants to bury a cable along the Calder Freeway and across 50 farms to Charlton, replacing the need to build more overhead transmission lines.

The Syncline underground DC cable could cut the need for the Western Renewable Link and half the Victorian section of VNI West overhead transmission line.

The company that pioneered the development of Melbourne’s massive Renewable Energy Hub wants to bury a 2000MW direct current cable along the Calder Freeway and across 50 farms to Charlton, replacing the need to build more overhead transmission lines.

Syncline Energy owner Phil Galloway said the 525kV DC cable created “an opportunity for the government to rethink WRL (Western Renewable Link) and halve VNI West”, given the benefits of undergrounding.

He said the company had already planned the 256km route in consultation with Wedderburn and Charlton farmers, exploiting the flexibility of a DC cable buried at a depth of 1.5m to ensure “almost no impact on farmers, their operations or land values”.

Victorian Farmers Federation Wedderburn branch President Graham Nesbit said Syncline was doing the right thing, by first sitting down with landholders on where to best place the cable, rather than the Australian Energy Market Operator’s approach of dictating corridors.

“I know some landholders who didn’t want a bar of it, so he (Galloway) went elsewhere,” Mr Nesbit said. “I don’t see what landholders have to lose”.

To date most farmers have signed agreements that grant Syncline access to their properties and outline easement terms in return for annual royalty payments of $46,000/km once the cable is installed, in addition to standard land acquisition compensation for the 30m-wide easement.

But Mr Galloway said the $3.2bn Syncline Community Cable proposal would go nowhere without the support of the Victorian Government and the Australian Energy Market Operator.

“(We’ve) provided multiple briefings to different government departments over the last 12 months and the feedback has been positive,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s been any questioning of the engineering, planning or community engagement.”

Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio’s office said: “Initial analysis of the Syncline proposal shows significant challenges, including costs, which would be passed onto consumers through their bills, and accessing the Calder Freeway for extended periods during construction.

“VicGrid (the government’s transmission planner) will continue to assess the project with the proponent.”

AEMO’s spokesman responded to questions with: “All I can say is that we’re aware of Syncline”.

Backtracking on WRL and VNI West would come at an enormous cost to AEMO, AusNet and the Victorian Government, who have already also sunk millions of dollars into planning and consultation on both projects.

Syncline’s proposal also comes at a high cost, given it requires two $800m AC-DC converters to be installed at either end of the DC line – one at Plumpton, near Melbourne and the other at Charlton.

Even so Mr Galloway said at a total cost of $12m per kilometre, the cable project was “significantly better value than the much longer overhead transmission projects currently proposed, which have not yet been fully costed or designed”.

AEMO estimates the cost of the Victorian section of VNI West at $1.6bn, while WRL is forecast to cost $1bn.

But AEMO also has a long history of underestimating project costs.

In 2018 AEMO estimated the NSW HumeLink would be completed by 2025 and cost between $575m and $1.72bn. NSW’s TransGrid has now revised the cost to $4.88bn.

Similarly, in 2016 AEMO estimated Project EnergyConnect – the interconnector between South Australia, Victoria and NSW – would cost $1bn, but the final cost was $3.6bn.

In August 2023 Victoria Energy Policy Centre director Bruce Mountain, retired electrical engineer Professor Simon Bartlett and Energy Grid Alliance director Darren Edwards published a critique of VNI West in which they estimated the Victorian half of the project alone would cost $4.9bn.

Mr Nesbit said “if landholders shut the gate, it will delay the projects so much his (Galloway’s) option might be the only one still standing”.

VFF president Brett Hosking, who attended a farmer briefing on the DC cable project in Wedderburn last Friday, said Syncline had an alternative that was useful in the current debate.

“I’m sure he (Galloway) is legitimate,” Mr Hosking said. “The question is: Will it replace WRL and VNI West or just be another piece of transmission cable that costs electricity consumers even more?”