Tuesday, 20 February 2024

Electricity infrastructure

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:38): (702) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Energy and Resources and concerns the recent storms, the interruption to Victoria’s grid and the enormous disruption the resulting blackouts caused. I first want to recognise, however, the much greater immediate damage caused by bushfires. In my own electorate 45 homes were lost at Pomonal. I pay tribute to the firefighters, including volunteers, who worked so hard to halt the fires, and I praise the community for coming together to help those in need. I know that this is just the beginning of the process of rebuilding and call on all agencies involved to provide support and assistance for as long as it is needed.

On the matter of transmission, the failure was clear. Six towers collapsed near Anakie. The Loy Yang A power station tripped off the grid and AEMO commenced load-shedding to keep the power system operational. Even by 9 pm more than 470,000 customers, which equates to a far greater number of individuals, remained without power.

Sadly, this failure is far from unique. In January 2020 six transmission towers came down near Cressy, taking down two lines and causing the Alcoa smelter to be disconnected and the Heywood interconnector to be cut, which isolated South Australia from the national electricity market. Repairing the infrastructure cost $25 million, directly passed on to electricity bill payers, but to my knowledge the economic cost of the blackout has never been properly calculated. It has certainly never been publicised. It is absolutely vital that this omission is not repeated. The disruption to all aspects of life is obvious to us, as is the safety consequence of losing phone signal in an emergency, but how much did it cost in lost productivity from businesses forced to stop production or close their doors, in spoiled food, medical supplies and perishable goods, in reduced consumer spending? The list goes on.

Why does it matter? It is simple. The latest network failure brings into question whether the reliability and security of power as well as the economic cost of mass outages has been properly priced into the government’s plan to massively expand overhead electrical power transmission. With climate change, we are told storms will become more frequent. So, Minister, the action I seek in the review you commission today is a full calculation and public release of the economic cost of electrical blackouts. Only then can we fairly compare the single-tower double-circuit 500-kilovolt lines, which will make up the Western Renewables Link and VNI West, with the inherently safer underground infrastructure and more resilient, greater redundancy of the plan B network option.