Taxpayers Told to Pay Millions for Unnecessary Power Line

Friday, 05 December 2003 10:00

"This development is ridiculously excessive given that peak demand in the area is growing at less than 9MW per year," said Jeff Angel, TEC Director. "It is not surprising that TransGrid's economic analysis shows that the line has an economic disbenefit of $24 to $39 million. By contrast, demand management, distributed generation or a smaller line would be more efficient and cost a lot less than the $68 million that Transgrid wants taxpayers to spend."

TransGrid today announced that it wants to build the controversial line in the Northern Corridor which runs past the Ulan coal mine. Secret Government documents leaked earlier this year revealed plans for a new coal-fired power station at the mine, in conflict with the Government's greenhouse reduction policies.

"It's no coincidence that this line runs right beside Ulan's coal mine and is many times bigger than what's needed for the area. TransGrid's discussions with proponents for a Ulan power station confirm that dirty economics are at work. TransGrid needs to immediately explain why it wants to build such a wasteful line or own up to plans for another polluting power station."

"TransGrid has ignored and dismissed cost-effective, sensible alternatives to this line in contravention of the National Electricity Code. They have made alternatives look expensive by fiddling the numbers, for example, costing peak-period, local generation on a 12 hour a day basis when it would only be used for a few hours per year."

"A 2001 report concluded that there is a range of cost-effective solutions in the area including local gas generation (75MW), energy efficiency (50MW) and wind energy (10MW). These cleaner, cheaper options, which supply well in excess of energy requirements for the area, have been suppressed by Transgrid."

"An outrageous abuse of the consultation process has taken place. We call on TransGrid and the Government to bring this development down to size and invest in cheaper, cleaner energy solutions for the area."
 

For further information

Contact
:
Jeff Angel or Jane Castle
Phone
:
61 2 9299 5599
Email
:
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:
http://www.tec.org.au/