Major reports highlight need for urgent investment in transmission

The Energy Security Board’s 2022 Health of the National Electricity Market report highlights the need for large-scale investment in new transmission while the Australian Energy Regulator State of the Energy Market report found energy affordability is a major challenge in the transitioning sector.

Transgrid CEO Brett Redman said the reports highlighted the need for urgent action.

“We must act now to accelerate the timeline for when renewables can deliver cheaper, cleaner and more reliable energy to homes and businesses. Transgrid is building the transmission super-highway which will transform the energy supply for millions of Australians,” Mr Redman said.

Earlier than planned retirement of coal-fired generation shows the shift from coal to renewables is happening even faster than expected.

Transgrid is calling for major transmission projects to be delivered faster and cheaper for consumers.

“The expansion of our grid is essential to underwrite energy security. We are building the infrastructure to enable the integration of existing and future wind, solar and hydro power. Our transmission projects EnergyConnect, HumeLink and VNI West will get renewable energy to market, filling the gap left as coal-fired generators become unreliable and retire,” Mr Redman said.

“Building now to facilitate the connection of new renewable generation and storage is the only acceptable path forward for Australia’s energy consumers, who will reap the rewards of a rapid acceleration for generations to come.

“It is imperative Transgrid builds new transmission now, to avoid paying much more for this critical infrastructure later.”

Construction is well underway on Australia’s largest electricity grid project, the $1.8 billion EnergyConnect interconnector, which will enable the sharing of energy between NSW, South Australia and Victoria for the first time.

Transgrid is also planning the VNI West project to enable more energy sharing between NSW and Victoria. It will converge in Wagga Wagga with EnergyConnect and HumeLink.

HumeLink will enable a successful and rapid integration of new, clean energy from renewable energy zones and unlock the full capacity of Snowy 2.0. This energy, from wind, hydro and solar farms, will be shared across NSW, the ACT and the National Electricity Market.

Transgrid is investigating the integration of these projects into a single simultaneous program to deliver them earlier and cheaper, which will help put further downward pressure on customer bills.