Transgrid is delivering Humelink. The project will be made up of 385 kilometres of 500-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines that will travel from Wagga Wagga and Maragle to Bannaby.
HumeLink is divided into two contracts:
The HumeLink East contract includes:
- 237 kilometre of transmission line from Bannaby to Wodalga, and
- the upgrade of the existing 500/330kV Bannaby substation.
The HumeLink West contract includes:
- 148 kilometre of transmission line from Maragle to Wagga Wagga
- the construction of two new 500/330 kV substations at Gregadoo (Gugaa substation) and Maragle, and
- the upgrade of the existing 330kV Wagga Wagga substation.
The purpose of the project is to connect the new Snowy 2.0 and the renewable energy sources of the South West Renewable Energy Zone to demand centres in Sydney, Wollongong, and Newcastle.
Both major contracts (HumeLink East and HumeLink West) comprise two stages:
- Stage One - pre-construction activities - including early works, detailed design, investigations, procurement including long lead equipment procurement such as locking procurement of steel towers, and project mobilisation.
- Stage Two - main works construction - including construction of transmission lines and upgrading substations.
During Stage One, Transgrid is undertaking its own procurement of key long lead items including reactors, transformers and conductors.
Key Dates
| Aug 2022 | EOIs Open |
| Oct 2022 | RFT Open |
| 2025 | Expected Construction Commencement |
| 2027 | Expected Construction Completion |
Funding contributions
|
In December 2022, the Federal Government committed $4.7 billion from Rewiring the Nation and the NSW Government committed $3.1 billion from the NSW Transmission Acceleration Facility to establish 8 critical transmission and REZ projects, including HumeLink. |
Financing
| Debt Finance: | Federal Government |
|
The Federal Government committed $66 million in underwriting for the project. |
|
Procurement
| Procuring Agency: | Transgrid |
PROJECT HISTORY
| Dec 2018 | The Energy Security Board's Integrated System Plan - Action Plan stated that AEMO is working with Snowy Hydro and Transgrid to refine and extend ISP modelling to better understand the costs, benefits and factors that affect the timing of HumeLink. |
| Jun 2019 | Transgrid published the Project Specification Consultation Report (PSCR). |
| Jul 2019 | AEMO released an Insights paper in support of the 2018 ISP, which flagged the need to accelerate the project timeline in preparation for Snowy 2.0. |
| Jan 2020 | Transgrid published the Project Assessment Draft Report (PADR), which suggested the preferred option for HumeLink as Option 3C. Option 3C provides more opportunity for route diversity, which will provide greater resilience to ‘high impact low probability events’ and unlock new renewable energy resources in the region, such as Snowy 2.0. |
| Jan 2020 | The Federal Government announced the signing of a $2 billion deal with the NSW Government, which includes joint underwriting of delivery of the HumeLink project. However, specific allocation of funding was not confirmed. |
| Jul 2020 | Project Assessment Conclusions Report Published (finalisation of RIT-T process). |
| Jul 2020 | In its 2020 Integrated System Plan, AEMO identified HumeLink as a critical project and provided updated costings for the project. |
| Mar 2021 | Transgrid identified two preferred route options for the project. The preferred route is expected to be announced later this year. The two options include: a new route within Green Hills State Forest which moves transmission across public land instead of private farmland, and a new route east of Barlow and north of Blowering Reservoir, avoiding Tumut Airport. |
| Jul 2021 | Transgrid published the Project Assessment Conclusions Report (PACR). |
| Sep 2021 | Transgrid refined the project corridor for the project. The changes include the removal of proposed transmission lines between Book Book and Gobarralong, and Maragle and Yaven Creek. In addition, a new connection between Yaven Creek and Gilmore will be introduced, and a new corridor option through Tumut will be assessed. |
| Feb 2022 | Transgrid submitted a Request for the Secretary's Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs) to NSW Department of Planning and Environment, for the Project's State Significant Development application. |
| Mar 2022 | Secretary's Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs) issued. |
| Apr 2022 | The Federal Government released a Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO) which committed $66 million to underwrite the project's early works. |
| Aug 2022 | The Australian Energy Regulator approved $321.9 million in costs for HumeLink early works Stage One, Part One, early works, following a contingent application submitted by Transgrid. |
| Aug 2022 | EOI phase commences. |
| Oct 2022 | Transgrid announced a shortlist of three proponents to deliver the project including: - an ACCIONA, Kalpataru Power Transmission and Genus Plus Group joint venture - a Downer Utilities Australia and Consolidated Power Projects Australia joint venture, and - UGL Engineering |
| Mar 2023 | Transgrid announced it secured $385 million in underwriting from the Federal Government as part of the Rewiring the Nation program to finance critical transmission supplies for VNI West, HumeLink and Project EnergyConnect. Transgrid also announced that procurement for these three projects will be bundled into one procurement program. |
| Aug 2023 | Transgrid signed a $100 million contract with ZTT Australia, a subsidiary of manufacturing company ZTT International, who will supply 17,500 kilometres of high voltage conductors to Transgrid as part of it’s Powering Tomorrow Together program. Under this program, Transgrid has bundled procurement for critical transmission equipment and materials for the HumeLink, Victoria to NSW Interconnector West and Project EnergyConnect projects together. |
| Aug 2023 | The Australian Energy Regulator approved $228 million in costs for HumeLink early works Stage One, Part Two, which involves long lead equipment procurement, following a contingent application submitted by Transgrid. |
| Aug 2023 | EIS enters public exhibition, closing on 10 October. |
| Dec 2023 | Transgrid announced it has awarded the HumeLink East contract to an ACCIONA and Genus Group Joint Venture and the HumeLink West contract to a UGL Engineering and CPB Contractors Joint Venture. |
| Dec 2023 | The Draft 2024 Integrated Systems Plan (ISP) lists HumeLink as an 'actionable' project and confirms the project cost to be $4,892 million (-5 per cent to +12 per cent). The Draft ISP also included an updated timeline of the project, with the Northern Circuit (Gugaa to Bannaby) expected to be complete by July 2026, and the Southern Circuit (Gugaa to Maragle to Bannaby) by December 2026. |
| Mar 2024 | Public consultation commenced on the Stage Two contingent project application from Transgrid for its HumeLink project, closing on 3 April. Transgrid proposed $4.3 billion of capital expenditure. |
| Jun 2024 | AEMO's 2024 ISP confirmed the updated timeline of the project, previously announced in the draft 2024 ISP. |
| Nov 2024 | The NSW Government granted the project planning approval. |
| Dec 2024 | The Federal Government granted the project planning approval. Subsequently, Transgrid's Board announced that a Final Investment Decision had been made, with construction expected to commence in early 2025. |
| Mar 2025 | The project was included in the Federal Government's inaugural Renewable Energy Priority List. The Priority List aims to provide coordinated support through Federal, state and territory regulatory and environmental approval processes on a case-by-case basis and provide a 'faster to yes, faster to no' approach to regulatory approvals. |
Estimated Total Cost
(2023)
Sector
Energy
Procurement approach
Traditional Procurement |
Location
New South Wales |
Resources
Government resources
Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2022Project Factsheet
AEMO 2020 Integrated Systems Plan
Project Assessment Draft Report
Project Specification Consultation Report
2024 Integrated Systems Plan
2024 Integrated Systems Plan - Appendix 5 Network Investments
AEMO 2018 Integrated Systems Plan
Integrated System Plan: Insights
NSW Transmission Infrastructure Strategy
AEMC: Last Resort Planning Power - 2018
Transgrid - Humelink Project Assessment Draft Report (Jan 2020)
Scoping Report - February 2022
Issued SEARs
2022/04/11 - Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook
NSW Government Planning Approval
National Renewable Energy Priority List
Media releases
2023/03/022022/08/17
2022/10/27
2021/03/19
2021/07/29
2021/09/22
2023/08/11
2023/12/04 - Contract awards for HumeLink East and West
2024/03/01 - Consultation open for Stage 2
2024/11/14 - NSW Approval
2024/12/19 - Federal Government approval
2024/12/19 - Final Investment Decision
2023/08/25
