Stakeholder consultation

We recently undertook six weeks of community and stakeholder consultation on alternate options in Victoria, including where VNI West links to WRL. Communities urged AVP to undertake this additional work and it provided an opportunity to broaden our understanding of what matters to communities in the broad area of interest for VNI West.

In total, 533 submissions were received in response to the additional Consultation Report, 519 of which have been published on AEMO’s website (14 submitters requested confidentiality). A large number of submissions (491) were received from concerned landowners and other community members. The remainder were received from councils, community organisations, environmental groups and consumer representatives.

A summary of the feedback received and our response to key themes can be found in PACR Volume 2: Additional Consultation Report Submissions.

Submissions to the additional Consultation Report

We received a total of 533 submissions to the additional Consultation Report. Submissions from individuals have been compiled into seven volumes. The index below can help you locate a submission alphabetically by name of submitter. Submissions made by organisations or representative groups have been uploaded individually and can be found below.

Next steps

TCV is a new company created by AEMO Victorian Planning to progress the VNI West transmission project following the completion of the regulated test for investment in transmission or RIT-T and the publication of the final report, the Project Assessment Conclusions Report.

As AEMO is the system planner, and will not physically construct or own the transmission lines, it established TCV to make sure that commitments made in the early stages are captured and honoured across the life of the project.

TCV will provide early project updates, and will work with the community on this important transmission line.

TCV and Transgrid are committed to ongoing consultation and engagement throughout project development and delivery through 2023 and beyond. The focus of engagement activity in 2023 will be to narrow a broad area of interest down to a study corridor and then an indicative route.

For more information on next steps and upcoming engagement, please refer to the TCV website at www.transmissionvictoria.com.au

Previous consultations

AEMO Victorian Planning (AVP) and Transgrid recently published a Consultation Report on the further analysis undertaken for the Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector West (VNI West) project. The report outlines a new proposed preferred option for the VNI West connection to WRL, near Bulgana, and invites stakeholder submissions during the six-week consultation period, concluding on Wednesday 5 April 2023.

The project team is hosting a series of webinars, briefings and community drop-in sessions to provide information about the Consultation Report, and welcomes feedback from stakeholders on:

• the assessment undertaken in the report
• the feasibility of Option 5 (to Bulgana)
• whether the Multi Criteria Analysis has captured the important social, environmental and engineering factors for each option, including those that sit outside the scope of the RIT-T, that may impact on the timely development of the project.

Please refer to the Consultation Report Summary and Project Update 6 for a concise summary of the key outcomes of the Consultation Report.

All feedback will be carefully considered in the preparation of the final report and all non-confidential written submissions will be published online, along with a summary of how feedback has been taken into account.

Please see below additional supporting documentation to the Consultation Report:

Community engagement

AVP and Transgrid are committed to engaging openly with communities through this additional consultation process to build trust and ultimately, social licence for electricity transmission.

A series of webinars, briefings and community drop-in sessions were held prior to submissions closing to raise awareness of, and support understanding of the additional work being undertaken to assess potential connection opportunities between VNI West and WRL. These sessions consulted further with stakeholders, Traditional Owners and communities, giving AVP and Transgrid an opportunity to listen to a broad range of views and gather valuable information before a final decision on the preferred option is made.

• View the webinar recording and the Q&A summary.

In parallel, AusNet will continue engaging with landholders along the proposed WRL route to provide them with the latest available information and respond to their questions and concerns about potential changes to WRL.

If you have any questions specific to the WRL project, please call 1300 360 795 or email info@westernrenewableslink.com.au

Project Assessment Draft Report

Summary of outcome  

Victoria – New South Wales Interconnector (VNI) West (via Kerang), is a proposed new high capacity 500 kilovolt (kV) double-circuit overhead transmission line between Victoria and New South Wales. The project would connect the Western Renewables Link (north of Ballarat) with Project EnergyConnect (at Dinawan) via a new station near Kerang and is estimated to cost $3,256 million. The 2022 Integrated System Plan (ISP)  identifies VNI West as an actionable ISP project.

The Project Assessment Draft Report (PADR) confirms that VNI West would provide a positive net market benefit of $687 million, in net present value terms. It also finds that combining VNI West with a non-network Virtual Transmission Line (VTL) would not increase the overall expected net market benefit.

VNI West is therefore considered the proposed preferred option identified under this PADR.

Engagement program

• AEMO Roundtable No. 2
            Thursday 18 August, 10:00 am (AEST) – Completed

• AEMO & Transgrid Information Session No. 2 
            Thursday 25 August, 1:00 pm (AEST) - Completed

The PADR VNI West recorded information session can be viewed online as well as other project resources.

The December 1, 2022 PADR Response VNI West session can be viewed online here 

Project Assessment Draft Report Submissions

Please see below non-confidential submissions to the Project Assessment Draft Report (PADR).

Project Specification Consultation Report Submissions

Please see below non-confidential submissions to the Project Specification Consultation Report (PSCR).