“Best practice” for transmission – report

Renewable energy advocates have criticised a number of new energy transmission projects, urging the companies planning them to consider social licence, the environment, and emissions more carefully.
The Energy Grid Alliance was founded to connect transmission companies, regulators, governments, and communities, to establish “best planning practice” for new transmission projects – but its latest report says the system is broken, and companies and governments aren’t doing enough.
The Alliance released a new report on 9 August titled ‘Acquiring Social Licence for Electricity Transmission, A Best Practice Approach to Electricity Transmission Infrastructure Development’, recommending a more “empathetic” approach towards local communities when planning transmission projects.
While the group acknowledges the necessity of a quick, sustainable transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, it says the way transmission companies are planning their new projects is ineffective in gaining social licence from local communities.
Darren Edwards is a Darley resident and Director of the Energy Grid Alliance, he said the negligence of energy companies and governments towards community consultation had heightened opposition to transmission projects.
“The energy industry and governments can do more to understand and appreciate that community benefits and compensation may not be the quick-fix solutions they hoped they might be,” Mr Edwards said.
“When you consider the ‘business as usual’ alternative, the cost of inaction will lead to increased opposition to overhead transmission projects across the nation and the market will dispense with any opportunity to acquire social licence.”
The report mentions five particular projects that have met fierce opposition: the transmission line connecting Gippslands’ GREZ, UPC-TasNetworks line in Tasmania, TransGrid’s HumeLink and the Central-West-Orana Renewable Energy Zone project in New South Wales, and locally, AusNet’s Western Renewables Link.
A reform to the regulatory process for transmission projects is needed, the report argues, to consider the “Triple Bottom Line” – addressing not only the financial impacts but also the social and environmental effects.
“The current regulatory environment, not community opposition, is delaying the investment in transmission. If not urgently addressed, these delays will not only slow the investment in Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) generation, impacting Australia’s capacity to achieve net zero emissions, delays will also likely result in higher than necessary electricity prices to consumers and less reliable supply outcomes than would otherwise be the case under more robust framework,” the report states.
To read the report visit bit.ly/social-licence-transmission.