By PHILIP HOPKINS
VICGRID has released more details of the proposed renewable energy zones in Gippsland as part of the long-term strategic plan for the development of Victoria’s REZs as the Latrobe Valley’s coal-fired power closes down.
The 2025 Victorian Transmission Plan sets out the transmission infrastructure that is needed to be built over the next 15 years to connect renewable energy to the main electricity grid.
The plan proposes the creation of six renewable energy zones (REZs) in Victoria that signal to the community, landholders and industry where wind and solar projects and batteries for storage should be developed.
VicGrid Chief Executive, Alistair Parker, said VicGrid had considered all the feedback it received from the community, regional stakeholders, Traditional Owners and the agriculture and energy industries in preparing the plan.
“The Victorian Transmission Plan has been designed through consultation to minimise impacts on landholders, regional communities and crucial regional industries like agriculture,” he said.
“VicGrid has worked hard to balance a range of factors as we make difficult decisions about where energy infrastructure is needed to deliver reliable and affordable power to Victorian homes, businesses and industry.”
In response to feedback following the release of the draft plan in May, VicGrid had adjusted the size and shape of REZs and refined some of its transmission projects. The area covered by proposed zones takes up about 7.9 per cent of Victorian land.
Landholders, communities and Traditional Owners within zones will soon have another opportunity to provide feedback and seek more information through a six-week consultation process to formally declare renewable energy zones.
VicGrid’s plan has identified an area for additional onshore wind energy generation in Gippsland and the additional transmission infrastructure needed to support about 7 GW of offshore wind.
This will connect to the Latrobe Valley’s significant existing transmission infrastructure, built to connect coal-fired power in the Valley to the rest of the state.
VicGrid is currently planning the Gippsland offshore wind transmission stage 1 project. This project includes a connection hub near Giffard in South Gippsland 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.
The authority is speaking with landholders and communities in Gippsland to identify the most suitable route for this new transmission line.
Other developments in the plan for Gippsland are:
A proposed Gippsland REZ between Morwell and Sale. This includes parts of the local government areas of Wellington and Latrobe. Small sections of Baw Baw and South Gippsland local government areas are also in the zone. It sits within the Registered Aboriginal Party boundary of the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation;
A proposed Gippsland Shoreline REZ between the Gippsland coast and South Gippsland Highway. This zone is not designed to host onshore wind or solar projects;
A Gippsland offshore wind transmission stage 2 project, which includes 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, and;
A second Hazelwood to Yallourn 220 kV transmission line, about 10 km long. VicGrid will investigate following the route of the existing transmission easement, but this will be subject to further technical work.
When identifying the proposed Gippsland REZ Zone between Morwell and Sale, VicGrid says it has aimed to balance complex land use issues across the region with the pressing need to position renewable energy zones with the best access to wind and solar energy.
“We sought to coordinate access to existing transmission infrastructure to avoid the need to build more transmission lines for onshore renewable energy generation,” the authority says.
“Australia’s first declared offshore wind area is located off the coast of Gippsland and VicGrid is coordinating development of the transmission that will bring offshore wind energy from the coast to the Latrobe Valley. Part of the proposed Gippsland REZ overlaps the offshore wind transmission study area.”
To plan the extent of new energy in the Gippsland REZ, VicGrid proposes to run a competitive allocation process to decide which projects in each zone have the authority to connect the energy they produce to the grid.
It will consider:
The amount of electricity Victoria needs to generate to meet expected demand as outlined in the Victorian Transmission Plan;
Ensuring the level of development inside each zone can be supported by available transmission lines;
The density of projects within each renewable energy zone;
How development can be coordinated to avoid the ‘spaghetti effect’ of many powerlines crossing the landscape, and;
Whether developers are meeting expectations for landholder, community and Traditional Owner engagement and benefits
“This will ensure we ultimately produce enough energy to meet demand while also considering the impact on communities, Traditional Owners, agriculture and the environment,” VicGrid says.
“We are proposing to set access limits for each zone at the maximum amount that can be managed by the planned build-out of the transmission network. This is not the level of development people should expect in each zone but is the maximum that the transmission network could support.”
