Project EnergyConnect is a proposed high voltage transmission line connection between the New South Wales and South Australian power grids.
The NSW-SA interconnector involves the construction of a new 330 kilovolt transmission line between Robertstown in South Australia and Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. It also includes a 220 kilovolt spur from Buronga in NSW to Red Cliffs in north-west Victoria. The transmission line will be approximately 900 kilometres in length and is being delivered in two sections:
- SA Section – construction of 275 KV and 300 KV transmission lines along a 205-kilometre route between Robertstown and the NSW Border.
- NSW Section – construction of transmission lines between the SA Border and Wagga Wagga in NSW along a 700-kilometre route. The NSW section is further split into two – the Western and Eastern section. The Western section is the SA/NSW border to Buronga to NSW/VIC border. The Eastern section is from Buronga to Wagga Wagga.
Key Dates
| Feb 2020 | RFT Open: NSW Section |
| Oct 2020 | Contract Awarded: NSW Section |
| Oct 2021 | Contract Awarded: SA Section |
| Feb 2022 | Construction Commencement: SA Section |
| Jul 2022 | Expected Construction Completion: Stage One |
| Jul 2022 | Construction Commencement: NSW - Western Section |
| Jul 2023 | Expected Construction Completion: Stage Two |
| Dec 2024 | Expected Construction Completion |
Funding contributions
| Federal Government | |
| SA Government | |
|
$100 million in joint underwriting support from the Federal and SA Governments will be provided for early works on a 50/50 basis. |
|
Financing
| Equity Finance: | TransGrid |
| Debt Finance: | SA Government |
| Debt Finance: | Clean Energy Finance Corporation |
| Debt Finance: | Federal Government |
|
The SA Government has announced a combined $275 million in underwriting to ElectraNet for the South Australian section of the project. The CEFC's contribution will finance the NSW and Victorian sections of the project. The Federal Government reached an agreement with TransGrid to provide up to $182 million in underwriting support for new transmission lines from the south of Coleambally to Wagga Wagga. |
|
Procurement
| Procuring Agency: | Procurement will be undertaken by ElectraNet in South Australia and Transgrid in New South Wales. |
| Tenderers (EOI/ROI): | Transgrid opened tenders for shortlisted bidders for design and construction of the NSW section of the project. ElectraNet issued EOIs to nine shortlisted participants from an open market engagement. |
| Shortlist: | NSW Section: TransGrid shortlisted three bidders to design and construct the NSW section, including CPB and UGL Engineering, an Elecnor Australia and Seymour White Constructions Joint Venture, and Quanta Power Australia. SA Section: ElectraNet shortlisted six participants and issued a Request for Proposals. |
| Successful Tenderer: | NSW Section: SecureEnergy, a Clough and Elecnor Joint Venture was awarded the Design and Construction contract. SA Section: Downer |
| Procurement note: | Hyosong has been selected to supply five Phase Shifting Transformers for the project. |
PROJECT HISTORY
| Oct 2017 | The SA Government first announced its support for the interconnector project in a pre-election energy policy statement. |
| Jul 2018 | The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) recommended the establishment of new transfer capacity between South Australia and New South Wales in its 2018 Integrated System Plan (ISP). The ISP provides long-term transmission system planning for the NEM and lists the new interconnector as a Group Two priority to be implemented by the mid-2020's. |
| Jul 2018 | South Australia’s transmission network service provider, ElectraNet conducted a project assessment for the proposed interconnector. The preferred route between Robertstown, SA and Wagga Wagga, NSW was identified. |
| Aug 2018 | The SA Government announced further funding support for the project, with a $14 million package to accelerate early works on construction. The NSW and SA Governments signed a MOU establishing a framework for co-operation to deliver the project. |
| Feb 2019 | The Project Assessment Conclusions report (PACR) was published, as part of the Regulatory Investment Test for Transmission (RIT-T). The AER commenced the formal process to consider ElectraNet’s request to determine whether the interconnector satisfies the RIT-T cost-benefit analysis. |
| Jun 2019 | The SA Government granted the Interconnector Major Project Status, recognising the economic significance of the interconnector to South Australia. |
| Aug 2019 | The NSW Government declared the project as Critical State Significant Infrastructure, requiring TransGrid to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the project. |
| Nov 2019 | The NSW DPIE received a request to prepare the Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs) for the project from SA Border to Buronga. The SEARs was issued on 5 December 2019. |
| Jan 2020 | The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) approved ElectraNet’s Regulatory Investment Test for Transmission (RIT-T) application for the SA-NSW interconnector. TransGrid also announced a shortlist of three bidders for the design and construction of the NSW section to be built from the South Australian border to Wagga Wagga. |
| Feb 2020 | TransGrid opened tenders for shortlisted bidders for the NSW section of the project. |
| May 2020 | The NSW DPIE received revised request to prepare the Secretary's Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs) for a revised project scope. |
| Jul 2020 | The Federal Government announced that Federal planning approvals for Project EnergyConnect will be fast-tracked under a bilateral model between the Federal and state governments, with the aim of reducing the approval times by up to 50 per cent, from an average of 3.5 years to 21 months. |
| Jul 2020 | The DPIE issued the revised Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs) for the Western Section of the project. Also, in its 2020 Integrated System Plan, AEMO identified Project EnergyConnect as a critical project and provided updated costings for the project. |
| Sep 2020 | The NSW DPIE issued the Secretary's Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs) for the NSW-Eastern Section of the project. The Federal Government also announced 'up to' $250 million to accelerate the project, alongside the NSW-Victorian Interconnector and Marinus Link. |
| Oct 2020 | ElectraNet announced that they have conducted a new cost-benefit analysis of the project and revised the forecast capital cost from $1.91 billion to $2.4 billion. The AER have confirmed that the project remains the preferred option despite the cost increase. |
| Oct 2020 | TransGrid announced the successful tenderer for the NSW section of the project. |
| Nov 2020 | The Environmental Impact Statement for the project's NSW-Western section was placed on public exhibition until 10 December. |
| Apr 2021 | The Australian Energy Market Commission denied TransGrid and ElectraNet's requested rule changes to bring forward cash flows for certain large-scale ISP transmission projects, including this project. This is the final decision after a draft determination was handed down in February 2021. |
| Apr 2021 | As part of the $1.08 billion State Energy and Emissions Reduction Deal, the Federal and SA Governments announced up to $100 million in joint underwriting for early works on the South Australian section of the project. |
| May 2021 | The Australian Energy Regulator determined the final cost for the project and issued its final regulatory approval for the project, with a revised cost of $2.28 billion. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) also committed up to $295 million in debt finance for the the NSW and Victorian sections of the project in a hybrid-financing structure with TransGrid, who committed to financing the remained of the NSW section and will recover these costs through user charges. The Environmental Impact Statement for the South Australian section of the project was put on public exhibition, closing 25 June. |
| Jun 2021 | ElectraNet confirmed it will invest $457 million to deliver the South Australian section of the $2.3 billion Project EnergyConnect from Robertstown to the New South Wales border. |
| Sep 2021 | The NSW Government granted planning approval for the western section of the NSW portion of the project. The westrern section includes works between the NSW and SA Border near Renmark Rd, Transgrid’s existing substation at Buronga, and the NSW and Victorian border near Monak. |
| Oct 2021 | ElectraNet awarded Downer a $200 million contract for the design, procurement and construction of a 330kV transmission line and 275kV transmission line between South Australia and NSW. Construction on the SA section is expected to commence in early 2022, with commissioning of the transmission lines expected to begin in 2023. |
| Jan 2022 | The NSW Government placed the Project EnergyConnect (NSW - Eastern section) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on public exhibition from 19 January to 15 February 2022. |
| Feb 2022 | The SA Government announced construction had commenced on the SA section of the project. |
| Apr 2022 | The Federal Government released a Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO). The PEFO committed $182 million to underwrite the project's transmission lines between Coleambally to Wagga Wagga. |
| May 2022 | Early works construction commenced on the NSW – Western section of the project. |
| Jul 2022 | Main works construction commenced on the NSW - Western section of the project. |
| Sep 2022 | The NSW Minister for Planning granted planning approval to the Project EnergyConnect (NSW - Eastern Section). |
| Feb 2023 | Preliminary testing on Phase Shifting Transformers (PST's) began in South Korea. Hyosung has been selected to supply five PSTs for the EnergyConnect project. |
| 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. |
Estimated Total Cost
(2021)
Sector
Energy
Procurement approach
Unconfirmed |
Location
New South Wales |
South Australia |
Resources
Media releases
2020/11/032021/04/08
2021/04/18
2021/05/31 (CEFC)
2021/05/31 (AER)
2021/06/10
2021/06/07
2021/09/28
2021/09/30
2021/10/12
2022/02/15
2022/09/14 - NSW Government
2022/09/14 - Transgrid
2022/05/31
2022/05/31
2021/05/31 (TransGrid)
2019/06/25
2020/01/24 (ElectraNet & TransGrid)
2020/01/24 (TransGrid)
2020/01/24 (AER)
2020/09/15
2020/10/08
2023/02/07
2023/03/02
2023/08/11
Other
AER RIT-T DeterminationEnvironmental Impact Statement - EnergyConnect (NSW - Eastern Section)
South Australian Government Energy Solutions Paper
AEMO 2020 ISP
Contingent Project Application for the South Australian Component
Electranet Project Assessment Draft Report - June 2018
SA Government Pre-Election Energy Policy - October 2017
AEMO 2018 ISP
