Project update

The Amendment Report, Submissions Report and Enabling Works Management Plan have been lodged

Transgrid lodged HumeLink’s Amendment Report and Submissions Report with the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) in May 2024. The Department has now made the reports publicly available on the NSW Major Projects Planning Portal.

The Submissions Report responds to the submissions made during the public exhibition period of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The Amendment Report assesses amendments and refinements made in response to community and stakeholder feedback received on the EIS, ongoing design refinements and further construction planning.

In June 2024, Transgrid lodged the Revised Biodiversity Development Assessment Report (BDAR) and the response to the NSW Biodiversity, Conservation and Sciences group (BCS) submission with the DPHI. The Revised BDAR documents potential biodiversity impacts that might occur during construction or operation of the proposed transmission line, substations and associated temporary or permanent infrastructure. The reports should be read together as they cross-reference one another.

The Revised BDAR has been recognised as one of the largest biodiversity assessment reports completed in NSW to date, highlighting the complexity and extent of the assessment. Due to this complexity, the Revised BDAR and the BCS submission were lodged separately from the Amendment Report and Submissions Report.

The Enabling Works Management Plan (EWMP) was also lodged with the DPHI in June 2024. The EWMP outlines how the enabling works will be completed. The enabling works are required to prepare the work sites before main construction begins. They involve establishing construction compounds, accommodation facilities, road works for new or existing access tracks and utility relocations.

This staged lodgement of submissions and reports was delivered in consultation with the DPHI and is consistent with the approach adopted on other recent transmission projects.

Following the lodgement of these documents, the project has entered into the assessment and determination stage. The DPHI will review all the information provided in the EIS, Submissions Report and Amendment Report and make a final determination on the project.

If you have any questions about the Amendment Report, Submissions Report or the EWMP, contact the project team via email humelink@transgrid.com.au or phone 1800 317 367.

Construction Update

HumeLink Contingent Project Application Stage 2 (CPA2) and Material Change in Circumstance Assessment (MCC) - feedback period has now closed

Material Change in Circumstance Assessment

On 1 March 2024, Transgrid published an update regarding the Material Change in Circumstance Assessment (MCC). Under the National Electricity Rules (NER) a material change in circumstance assessment (MCC) is required if a project changes in terms of cost. As part of this announcement, Transgrid invited feedback from communities and stakeholders by midnight 21 March 2024. This consultation period has been extended until 3 April 2024 at the request of community.

The MCC tests if these project changes impact the ranking of the preferred option compared to the original assumptions made in the Regulatory Investment Test for Transmission (RIT-T) process, which was completed for HumeLink in 2021.

The overall cost of HumeLink has increased from $3.27b in 2021 to $4.88b in 2024. These cost increases are driven by global demand, supply chain disruption and increased prices for raw materials and are commensurate with increases in major projects globally during this period. During this period, the market benefits also increased and as such the assessment found the preferred option for HumeLink remained unchanged. This means the increase in cost is not deemed a material change in circumstance event as defined by the attached report.

The market benefits associated with HumeLink have increased, from $500m to more than $1b. This significant increase in market benefits is primarily driven by:

the latest AEMO information on timing of energy generation projects, and
emissions targets and renewable energy policies changing the inputs and assessments for AEMO benefits modelling.

The reports below and associated models outline this information in more detail. Transgrid welcomes feedback from communities and stakeholders. If you would like to give feedback, please email humelink@transgrid.com.au by midnight 3 April 2024. Feedback received during the period will be considered by the HumeLink project team and responded to after the closing date.

The extension of the MCC feedback period aligns with the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) consultation on the Contingent Project Application Stage 2 (CPA2) for HumeLink.

Contingent Project Application

A draft Contingent Project Application (draft Application) has been published for the delivery of Humelink, which will be our largest capital project since construction of our existing network. It involves around 360km of new 500 kV transmission lines connecting the greater Sydney load centre with the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme and Project EnergyConnect.

A Contingent Project Application (CPA) is the application a regulated business like Transgrid makes to the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) to amend its revenue determination to include cost recovery from consumers for a project such as HumeLink.

The AER provided its determinations for Humelink Stage 1 part 1 (Early Works) on 17 Aug 2022 and Stage 1 part 2 (Long Lead Equipment) on 25 Aug 2023. We are please to now provide our draft Stage 2 Contingent Project Application for the delivery of the HumeLink project.

Stakeholder engagement on our draft Stage 2 Application is important due to the significant costs involved. Please refer to the following documents for further details:

Humelink Draft CPA-2 – Principal Application – This document sets out our proposed expenditure, the associated incremental revenue requirement and the indicative customer bill impacts for Stage 2 activities.
Humelink Draft CPA-2 Direct Capex Forecast Method – This document explains and justifies our Stage 2 direct capex forecast.
Humelink Draft CPA-2 Labour & Indirect Capex Forecast Method – This document explains the bottom up forecast of labour and indirect support costs required for the design, construction and management of the program.

Please share with us your views and position on this draft Stage 2 Application by email at: regulatory.consultation@transgrid.com.au by 22 December 2023.

Stakeholders and community members can provide feedback on the draft HumeLink CPA Stage 2 application should they wish to do so before the statutory period begins. However, there will be another opportunity to give feedback on this application.

Following this initial feedback round and the following feedback loop confirmation from AEMO, Transgrid will submit our formal HumeLink CPA Stage 2 application to the Australian Energy Regulator (AER).

A formal consultation process will follow in 2024, including public exhibition of the application for a statutory period of four weeks.

Transgrid shortlists proponents for critical HumeLink transmission

Australian Energy Regulator approves Stage 1 (Part 2) early works funding for HumeLink

Australian Energy Regulator approves Stage 1 (Part 1) early works funding for HumeLink

Transgrid releases the HumeLink Project - underground report

In late 2021, Transgrid was asked by the community and landowners to investigate options which explore the feasibility of building the HumeLink project via underground cable instead of overhead transmission lines.

Transgrid agreed to form a collaborative, Steering Committee, which developed an underground feasibility study scope of works. GHD and sub-consultants Stantec were appointed due to their High-Voltage Direct-Current (HVDC) expertise.

Following the completion of additional independent reviews of the project costing assumptions, GHD and Stantec have finalised the HumeLink Project – Underground Report and the community members of the Steering Committee have provided Transgrid with their response to the Report. In February 2023 Transgrid released its response to the report.

The cost of undergrounding the HumeLink transmission lines is estimated to be $ 11.5 billion at least three times more than the entire project’s current cost of $3.3 billion.

This is unsustainable as the additional cost will be passed on to commercial, industrial and private electricity consumers, at a time of great concern about escalating electricity prices.

The additional expenditure would curtail expenditure on other transmission projects essential for connecting alternative, renewable energy to consumers. This is because there is only a finite amount of money available to rewire the nation to deliver alternative, renewable power.

Undergrounding transmission lines would mean a significant delay in completion of the project by up to five years.

This delay would threaten the timely connection of the new renewable energy and the related essential new interstate connections to the grid. It is essential that the infrastructure is completed by 2026 to secure the network before the ageing power stations are decommissioned. A significant delay would put the energy security and stability of large parts of Eastern Australia at risk of failure.

We understand and empathise with the concerns of landowners and their desire to avoid hosting transmission infrastructure on their land. We appreciate that people will be disappointed by the decisions following the completion of the report. However, it is very difficult to put in place any large infrastructure project without impacting some landowners. We hope that certainty may, to some extent, balance concern and disappointment.

Transgrid will continue to consult with landowners to minimise the impact to their properties.

Transgrid would like to acknowledge the efforts of the communities and volunteers from across the HumeLink footprint for the many hours they have contributed to the work of the steering committee since late 2021.

Project updates