“Big shift in language:” Transgrid welcomes new urgency in transmission plans

Transgrid, the NSW-based transmission company, says it is pleased with the renewed urgency laid out in the latest Integrated System Plan because of what it sees as an accelerating switch to renewables and storage.

Transgrid will likely be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Australian Energy Market Operator’s 2022 ISP because most of the priority projects lie within its geography.

It is already working on the $2.3 billion Project EnergyConnect linking NSW and Victoria, and will play the central role in the proposed HumeLink, Sydney Ring, and New England renewable energy zone projects, and a major role in VNI West link between NSW and Victoria.

“I think there’s a big shift in language from the draft ISP,” Transgrid CEO Brett Redman told RenewEconomy in an interview.

“We’ve been saying for some time that we thought we really needed to get on with transmission and advocating pretty strongly for it. So I think what we’re seeing is a real acceleration in both the planning and the language, calling out for transmission to move forward.”

Redman says the transmission approval process has been slow, and there is now a greater realisation that the switch to green energy is going to accelerate, particularly after the disruption in global energy markets.

The ISP predicts a rapid transition to renewables, from around 30 per cent now to 83 per cent within a decade, with the last coal plant to close by 2043.

A new scenario, Hydrogen Superpower, which may become the central scenario within a few years, assumes an even more rapid transition to green energy, with the last coal generator leaving the grid within 10 years rather than 20 years.

“The only thing you can be sure about the forecast is that it’s wrong,” Redman says. “Time and time again, we see the forecasts change and how fast things are going to go, partly because transition is about periods of apparent stability, and then then sudden big ships.

“It is hard to predict, in the short term, exactly when those big shifts will go. But I think we’re seeing into a future where the decisions are accelerating to move and, and then are multiplying on each other.

“Secondly, I’m a huge optimist on what Australia can do in the space. So I’m a big believer in the idea of Australia as a renewable superpower, and the hydrogen superpower ideas as well.

“So, let me acknowledge that this talks my own book and Transgrid’s, but I still think it’s the right answer anyway.

It’s no regrets building up for transmission, because what you’re doing is you’re strengthening the grid, strengthening the backbone. So in all scenarios, you’ve got the platform to do whatever you want to do.”

So, does the builder of the main transmission link key to Snowy 2.0 know any more about the mooted delays of the project?

“I can only go on really what has been said publicly,” Redman says. “It sounds like they are going through a review but I don’t know exactly where they’re at.”