Marinus Link moves closer to construction as short-list narrows down to two contenders

Work on the now-$3.86 billion Marinus Link subsea transmission line progressed over the January summer holidays, as the project begins planning for construction. 

The TasVic Greenlink and Empower consortia made the shortlist of two this week for the final tender to build the 750 megawatt (MW) cable across the Bass Strait. 

A second cable, dubbed stage 2, may follow once the first has been finished around 2030. 

The 1.5 gigawatt (GW) capacity transmission line will be made up of 250km of undersea cable from a converter station at Heybridge in Tasmania’s northwest, to Waratah Bay in Victoria.

Once in Victoria, the cable will travel underground for about 90km to reach a second converter station in Hazelwood.

Momentum despite new cost blowouts

Momentum appears to be behind the project, with Marinus Link’s development application now lodged with the Burnie City Council for its Heybridge converter station and to lay the cable from the station under a railway line, a highway and the shore to get out into Bass Strait. 

The Heybridge site is the former Tioxide Australia factory, which made titanium dioxide between 1949 and 1996.

But getting the controversial transmission line – already cut in half once due to cost concerns– to come in close to budget is proving challenging. Five days before Christmas Marinus Link said the bill is now looking to be $3.86 billion.

It’s up about 17 per cent, because of “unprecedented demand” for subsea cables in Europe, interim CEO of the project, Dr Collette Burke, said at the time. 

The original two-cable project was estimated to cost $3 billion in total in 2021, the year when construction costs began to really spiral.  

Moving forward

The winner of the stage 1 construction tender will be chosen by the end of the year with work to start in 2026, a spokesperson from Marinus Link confirmed. 

Of the consortiums in the running, TasVic Greenlink is a joint venture of DT Infrastructure and Samsung C&T Corporation, while Empower is a joint venture of CIMIC Group companies CPB Contractors and UGL.

The winner will handle the Balance of Works which covers all onshore civil and installation work, including converter station buildings and the civil work needed before installing the land cable.

“This milestone follows the completion of two major tenders last year for submarine and land cables and the highly specialised converter station technology,” Burke said in a statement.

Those deals were with Hitachi Energy for the DC converter technology that will go inside the enormous converter sheds at either end of the cable, and with Prysmian Powerlink for the cable itself.

“Once we have closed out the Balance of Works’ development phase, we will be set to commence construction in 2026 and deliver by 2030,” she said.

Marinus Link is asking for Tasmania and Victorian businesses to register for subcontracting opportunities.