Marinus secures cable deal as full costs of sub-sea link revealed

Days after federal and state governments guaranteed the future of at least one sub sea link between Tasmania and Victoria, Marinus Link has confirmed an order for the high voltage direct current cable system from Italian telecom cable systems leader Prysmian Powerlink.

The future of a downsized Marinus Link project was secured over the weekend after a new agreement between the federal government and relevant state governments was signed to curb a blow out in the project’s costs.

The scale of the “Battery of the Nation” project was cut in half, from two 750MW sub sea cables to one, after it was revealed that the cost of a single link had blown out to between $3 and $3.3 billion, equivalent to the original cost estimate of the whole project.

On Tuesday, Tasmanian energy minister Guy Barnett told state parliament the projected cost of two cables had risen to $5.5 billion.

He said a decision on whether to proceed with a second cable would be made at the end of 2024, although federal energy minister Chris Bowen says two thirds of the project “value” will be unlocked by a single cable.

Under the revised funding deal, Tasmania’s contribution towards construction is almost halved to between $106 million and $117 million. Much of the funding will come via the Clean Energy Finance Corp, although fine details of who ultimately pays have not been revealed.

John Tucker, one of two MPs who put the state government in minority when they quit the Liberals partly over Marinus Link concerns, said he was not impressed.

“(It is) nothing more than a marginal improvement on a deal which was so bad the government itself admitted would bust the budget,” he told state parliament.

Meanwhile, Italian telecom cable systems giant Prysmian Powerlink, has signed a “capacity reservation agreement” which means it will deliver the the high voltage cable that will run 255kms from north west Tasmania to Waratah Bay in Victoria’s south, and then another 90kms underground to the Latrobe Valley.

The deal has been made possible by a $152 million underwriting agreement with the federal government.

Prysmian will design, test, supply and install the HVDC cable system which will consist of 320kV single-core cables with XLPE insulation and single-wire armouring, covering both submarine and land sections.

The capacity reservation agreement will hold in place until the execution of the final contract, expected to be by July 2024.