Lot of ifs, buts and maybes in state’s energy plan

TIME is ticking away if you want to make a submission to the 2025 Victorian Transmission Plan, closing on Sunday night, August 25.

It’s an opportunity for you to highlight why your farm and food production needs to be protected, or significant landscapes and environmental sensitivities avoided, especially in the Tier 1 priority areas around Korumburra and north of Fish Creek and Foster.

Providing feedback on the principles that will guide decisions about where transmission and renewable energy infrastructure will be located also closes on the same day.

Perhaps more importantly, the date for providing feedback on which sites should be protected and avoided or prioritised for investigation closes on September 30.

You can fill out feedback forms on both of these important subjects on the Engage Vic website under the heading of transmission plan.

There will also be two drop-in sessions at the Korumburra Community Hub on Wednesday, August 14 (4pm-7pm) and Thursday, August 15 (10.30am-12.30pm).

As we heard from VicGrid last week, with the pressure on to meet the tight timelines of the looming closure of the Latrobe Valley’s electricity infrastructure, and the need to deliver cheap power to the market, “best-practice energy market modelling” and not community sentiment will decide where the turbines and transmission lines go, but you’ve got to try, right?

According to VicGrid, the draft study area is a starting point for further and more detailed analysis where they’ll look to identify smaller areas for investigation and prioritisation for declaration as a dreaded Renewable Energy Zone.

But they say they will consider regional characteristics and constraints in more detail, such as cultural values and impacts to agricultural land and irrigation districts.

So, those issues of concern locally must be addressed and it is up to our local shire councils to take the lead on this by quickly commissioning an impact report on behalf of the agricultural, tourism and business sectors, as well as the community generally.

If you read into the report, the state government is already considering the “what if” scenario of what happens if there is a delay to Western Renewables Link, Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector

West, Marinus Link, offshore wind generation and Snowy 2.0 as there almost certainly will be.

They say they might have to delay the closure of the old coal-fired power stations in the Latrobe Valley.

The government needs to come clean on that scenario and while they’re at it, why not have an adult conversation about the reliability and opportunity cost of renewables-only versus having nuclear as part of the mix.