Dear Rhiana,
I am writing to you on a matter of great importance to all members of rural western Victoria and which I believe should also be of concern to your viewers and to all Victorians at large.
I live in Myrniong, Victoria, and my property and community will be negatively impacted by the Western Renewables Link (WRL) transmission line. I am a longstanding member of the Moorabool and Central Highlands Power Alliance Inc. (MCHPA) which has united the communities impacted by the WRL and the more recently announced VNI West transmission line project under the banner name of the Regional Victorian Power Alliance (RVPA). I am writing to you to highlight the alternative plan that has recently been announced by the Victorian Energy Policy Centre (VEPC) and what I believe is a conflict of interest for AEMO. I believe AEMO has misled the Victorian Government.
On Wednesday, 2 August 2023, the ABC 7:30 report covered the launch of a report by the VEPC, part of Victoria University, into an alternate solution for the much-opposed Western Renewables Link (WRL) and VNI-West.
You would be aware that these are two new high voltage overhead transmission lines that AEMO and Lily D’Ambrosio are endeavouring to force through rural communities of: Melton, Moorabool, Hepburn Springs, Ballarat, Pyrenees, Northern Grampians, Buloke, Loddon, Gannawarra, and Swan Hill municipalities, The two lines will cut a 100m wide swathe through approximately 440 kms of residential and farming properties alike, and both are vehemently opposed by the community.
Further to your 2 August program, I seek your support to investigate the extent of AEMO’s apparent duplicitousness in the planning of the WRL, and also the VNI-West project, and bring to this public attention and join the call for a review of the VEPC plan, independent of AEMO.
Importantly, the VEPC’s report exposes AEMO’s conflict of interest as both Victoria’s electricity transmission planner and the electricity market operator and puts forward an alternate plan to deliver the additional transmission the State needs to meet its target of ‘95% renewables by 2035’.
Plan B, as VEPC calls it, has the potential to deliver the capacity needed without building the new 500KV overhead WRL and VNI-West lines. It does this largely by upgrading and increasing the capacity of the existing 220KV infrastructure to gather the renewable energy generated within Victoria, rather than pay for AusNet and others to import that renewable energy from interstate.
This report is a breath of fresh air for all our communities and offers Lily D’Ambrosio a practicable and face-saving way out of the mess that AEMO has gotten us into.
Amongst its recommendations, the VEPC calls for AEMO to be stripped of its transmission planning responsibilities for Victoria and for these to be assigned to VicGrid, and for VicGrid to undertake an independent review of the Plan B analysis, not AEMO. In the face of the evidence presented, this should not be controversial, as my understanding is that this is the reason that VicGrid was established in the first place.
On Wednesday’s 7.30 Report, the ABC told the stories of two landowners who will be impacted by these projects. It also aired AEMO’s disagreement with the VEPC report and the CEO’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge AEMO’s errors, or concede that an independent review was even prudent, given that AEMO has not planned any significant transmission expansions in the last 50 years. I am willing to bet that this timeframe is longer than most, if not all, of the working lifetimes of the current AEMO workforce.
Lily D’Ambrosio’s reported response was also weak: “let’s be clear” she said, “I’m not the engineer here, AEMO are/has the experts at hand, the engineers, the economists, … that have considered a whole range of options and alternatives.” I believe that only the first part of this statement is true, Lily is not an engineer! But what due diligence has she undertaken to ensure herself that AEMO, in recommending the WRL and VNI-West, has given unbiased, accurate, and lawful advice, which is in Victoria’s best interest, and not theirs? This is the question I would have liked your reporter to ask.
You may already be aware that the lawfulness of Minister D’Ambrosio’s two “VNI West and WRL Ministerial Orders” are currently being challenged by the MCHPA in the Victorian Supreme Court, with a hearing date set for 7 – 12 September. The MCHPA is the legal entity undertaking this action on behalf of all the landholders, communities and businesses impacted by WRL and VNI West.
AEMO does have engineers, but first and foremost AEMO is the national energy market operator, primarily representing companies who generate, transmit and distribute electricity and gas. These companies build infrastructure and generate and sell electricity at a regulated price. This guarantees their profits and shifts costs and risks on to Victorian consumers, not them.
For AEMO to ignore the VEPC report and tell Lily D’Ambrosio that there is ‘nothing to see here’ exposes AEMO’s conflict of interest for what it is.
AEMO’s advice, which Lily has blindly signed up to, is biased towards its membership and I believe that the Victorian public should demand an independent review of the VEPC’s Plan B analysis, and for a publicly accountable transmission planning authority (e.g. VicGrid) to adopt a new plan for renewable transmission which will get Victoria what it needs with the support of and in the best interests of the community.
