Northern Victoria united in calls for transmission line upgrades

Published on 18 September 2020

Northern Victoria is primed to become a renewable energy powerhouse and now, with unprecedented support from political representatives at all levels, there is a unique opportunity to unlock region’s huge potential for large scale solar.

The Murray River Group of Councils has been calling for urgent investment to increase capacity in Victoria’s transmission network which would release around $5 billion of investment in solar farms that already have planning permits in the region and get them feeding renewable energy into the grid.

The Group was excited to see the Federal member for Mallee, Dr Anne Webster MP recently make a strong speech in Parliament in support of renewable energy for the region.

“We would like to thank Anne Webster, and can I say the Murray River Group of Councils fully supports her calls for investment in the grid and to prioritise projects that will increase transmission capacity,” Murray River Group of Councils Executive Officer, Geoff Turner said.said Executive Officer, Geoff Turner. “That’s exactly what we need”.

“With Anne’s strong voice in Federal parliament added to (Victorian Energy Minister) Lily D’Ambrosio’s and to those of the Mayors of six northern Victorian councils, all calling for the same thing, that makes this a special opportunity.

“The region is completely united in this. We have support from across Northern Victoria; the Mallee and Loddon Campaspe Regional Partnerships, Loddon Mallee RDA Committee, the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre, Loddon Mallee New Energy Taskforce, the Loddon Campaspe Group of Councils, Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance as well as the Victorian Government and our local Federal Member.

“We all want to see the same thing: investment in renewable energy in our region and, most urgently upgrades to the transmission lines to provide the capacity to get that renewable energy back into the grid.

“Across the region, our member councils have already issued permits for over 4GW of solar power generation, and there is another 4GW of interest. Putting that into perspective, Loy Yang A is Victoria’s biggest power station and that is 2.2GW”.

The Australian Energy Market Operator is currently working on a new interconnector route and this project – the VNI West – is part of the solution. It will upgrade some of the network and will provide a new interconnector between NSW and Victoria.

While VNI-West is vital, it won’t unlock the full potential of the region. That will require additional upgrades between Kerang and Red Cliffs and potentially further depending on the route AEMO settles on.

Unlocking the full potential for solar farms in the region would create more than 3200 construction jobs according to modelling done for the Loddon Mallee Renewable Energy Roadmap and would generate over $1 billion in supply chain benefits.

“This is genuinely nation building infrastructure. We need it to transition to renewables and it will improve network resilience and reliability for all of south eastern Australia,” Mr Turner said.

Large scale power generation in the region would also have widespread economic development benefits by enabling the expansion of manufacturing, benefit the agricultural industry and potentially could support hydrogen fuel cell production to power the freight industry.

“This is custom made for stimulus or recovery money as we look to build our way out of the COVID recession," Mr Turner said.

“We urge the Federal and State Governments and AEMO to look on this as a real opportunity that would lead to a massive, sustained construction and investment led recovery in Northern Victoria as it positions itself as a renewable energy powerhouse”

The Murray River Group of Councils comprises six councils in northern Victoria - Mildura and Swan Hill Rural City Councils and Loddon, Gannawarra, Campaspe and Moira Shires.