Power code: Energy companies to be subject to enforceable land access rules

The ESC is calling on landholders to help create an enforceable code to guide the behaviour of power companies when accessing rural properties.

Hundreds of rural landholders across Victoria and NSW face having high-voltage transmission lines built across their properties over the next few years.

The Essential Services Commission is calling on landholders to help it develop an enforceable code of practice that sets out the rules governing power companies’ access to rural properties.

Victorian Farmers Federation planning, environment and climate change committee chair Gerald Leach said it was crucial farmers get involved.

“For the past 20 years private electrical companies have been accessing land without complying with the required land access code under the Electricity Industry Act 2000,” Mr Leach said. “When farmers have asked them to comply with biosecurity requirements the companies said they didn’t need to.

Power companies will soon have new rules to follow concerning their ability to access rural property.

“It is critical that there is a code to guide how companies behave on our farms and that there be an independent assessment and complaint handling process.”

Development of the code comes as the Victorian, NSW and federal governments forge ahead with building multi-billion dollar transmission networks to feed green energy into Melbourne and Sydney.

Hundreds of landholders across Victoria’s six and NSW five renewable energy zones are likely to face negotiating with power companies contracted to build transmission lines and pylons up to 75m high across their properties over the next few years.

Late last year the Australian Energy Market Operator released the draft project assessment for another 500 kV double-circuit overhead transmission line (the Victoria-NSW Interconnector West), which will run from North Ballarat into southern NSW, via Kerang, affecting hundreds more rural landholders.

In Gippsland 48 landholders sit on the proposed route of a new transmission line, which will run from Giffard to Hazelwood via Longford.

The ESC is urging any landholder whose property was accessed by an energy company to fill out the survey at www.engage.vic.gov.au.

Mr Leach said he encouraged farmers “to let ESC know what information you need from companies, what you need them to do before accessing your farm and to provide information of any situation where this infrastructure has impacted on your farming activities or emergency response”.

The Australian Government’s Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Andrew Dyer has also updated his guidelines for landholders entering commercial agreements with renewable energy project developers on hosting batteries, wind and solar farms, which can be found on his website www.aeic.gov.au.

Mr Dyer said the guideline was first developed in 2021 in response to an increasing number of landholder complaints he was receiving about host agreements.

“Our investigations found that many agreement documents were biased towards the developer and unfair from a landholder’s perspective,” he said.