Farmers call ongoing payments for powerline easements
Farmers are getting $20,000 or more each year to host wind turbines on their land, but feel like they are not compensated fairly for a powerline easement.
Farmers want to be paid rent on land they hand over as easements for construction of Australia’s vast new web of transmission lines, which are being built to feed cheap renewable electricity back to the nation’s capitals.
“How is it that someone with a wind towers on their place gets $15,000 to $20,000 a turbine, while the fella next door, who provides the easement to transmit it, just gets one-off compo,” Bulla farmer Alan McKenzie said.
“If it’s good enough for one bloke to get that sort of (ongoing) money, then it’s good enough for others with these easements to get the same.”
It’s a sentiment backed by the Victorian Farmers Federation and shared by Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Andrew Dyer who deals with complaints over the construction of major transmission lines, wind and solar farms.
“There is a terrific opportunity to positively bring the farming community along and become supportive of hosting new transmission lines — by finding a way that the landholder can share in the ongoing economic benefits being delivered by the transmission infrastructure,” Professor Dyer said.
“As happens with landholders that host wind, solar and storage infrastructure.”
“None of this infrastructure can exist without land, and the landholder’s co-operation and use of their asset is essential for these new projects to proceed.”
There is no specific formula for calculating compensation, according to AusNet, which owns the Victorian transmission network.
Victorian Farmers Federation Livestock vice-president Scott Young, who has both turbines and powerlines on his Fiskville property, said ongoing lease payments on easements made sense, given restrictions on farming practices and power companies need for ongoing access to maintain powerlines.
Moorabool and Central Highlands Power Alliance chair Emma Muir said her property was set to be carved up into a series of triangles under the 190km Western Victorian Transmission Network Project being built by AusNet, which will take a 500kV line from Bulgana, near Stawell, to Sydenham in Melbourne.
“It (the transmission line) will split our four main paddocks into triangles and means we can’t run a header under it, not aerial spray for serrated tussock,” Ms Muir said.
“We want to block it going ahead, but if it comes through we would want ongoing compensation.”
AusNet Executive Project Director Stephanie McGregor said “we are working on comprehensive guidelines for compensation for affected landholders, which will be ready to release in the coming months”.
“Every landholder will be treated individually, and compensation will consider a number of factors, including if the easement impacts a landowner’s activities, for example the use of specific agricultural equipment.”
VFF president Emma Germano said any annual payment or rent “should reflect the impact on farm productivity, value and any other associated financial impacts or costs”.
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