By PHILIP HOPKINS
FARMERS in Gippsland face new negotiations with VicGrid and offshore wind developers under the state government’s draft Victorian Transmission Fund, with Victoria’s peak farming body saying there are a lot of unanswered issues.
The draft includes a Gippsland offshore wind transmission Stage 2 project, which features a new 500 kV transmission line from the existing transmission network near Driffield to Woodside, and a new 500 kV line from Woodside to Giffard. New terminal stations will be needed at Driffield and Woodside.
There is also a proposed Gippsland Shoreline Renewable Energy Zone between the Gippsland coast and South Gippsland Highway, from Seaspray to Reeves Beach, where offshore wind developers will need to locate underground cables that connect to a connection hub near Giffard. This zone is not designed to host onshore wind or solar projects.
A Renewable Energy Zone between Morwell and Sale, and a new new 10-kilometre transmission line between Yallourn and Hazelwood are part of the package.
The chair and president of the Victorian Farmers Federation, Brett Hosking, told the Express that the new VicGrid draft plan raised a lot of questions. There was still not even an agreement on negotiations for the current Stage 1 project, which involves a connection hub near Giffard and a 500 kilovolt (kV) transmission line that will connect the first 2 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy to the grid in the Latrobe Valley. VicGrid has said it will refine the study area to a corridor and then a route for the new transmission.
Mr Hosking said under the draft, landholders who were told their land was not suitable had found themselves right in the middle of a new Renewable Energy Zone (REZ). With more negative attitudes than positive towards offshore wind farm projects, it was uncertain how many of these projects would get off the ground.
“If that happens, what impact will that have on potentially more onshore wind farms?” he queried.
Community engagement had been poor.
“I’m not hearing too many positive stories. The proposals are dividing communities and having an impact on health and wellbeing. Proponents do not know how to do the best job,” he said.
“VicGrid can put out their plan, but can proponents lift their game?”
Mr Hosking said many energy projects in the REZs were a long way from where the energy would be consumed.
A community group, Better Transmission Gippsland (BTG), said the state government was heading toward failure in energy by refusing to invest in safe, modern infrastructure to carry power from Gippsland’ s offshore wind farms to the Latrobe Valley.
“They’ve released the plan, but they’re still missing the point,” said BTG chair Kirra Bott.
“The goal of this transition isn’t just more energy. It’s more secure energy.”
Ms Bott said the two new overhead powerlines were the same outdated infrastructure that collapsed near Anakie in 2024, cutting power across the region and costing an estimated $770 million in damage. AusNet’s own data showed these failures are becoming more frequent, now occurring less than six years apart on average.
“VicGrid claims undergrounding would cost $3 billion more up front but when spread across all Victorian households over 40 years, that’ s just seven to eight cents more per day per household, or $2.31 a month – a small price for a power supply that won’t collapse under pressure,” she said.
“You can’t build the state’s future power supply on towers that keep falling down. The refusal to consider undergrounding isn’t just a technical failure, it’s a political one.
“This government says it’s leading the energy transition, but when it matters, it picks the cheapest path and leaves communities, businesses and the grid exposed.” The draft plan aims for 320-240 megawatts (MW) of new onshore wind energy in the Morwell-Sale REZ. The draft Transmission Plan identified the need for new transmission lines in Gippsland to support both the draft proposed Gippsland REZ and about 7000MW of offshore wind by 2040. The location where each transmission line will be built has not yet been identified.
