Transmission Lines

Significant traction has been gained during the year on raising the awareness of the need for extensions to the existing transmission network to cater for the expected growth in renewable energy development driven by the federal government’s Renewable Energy Target legislation.

The Australian Energy Markets Commission (AEMC) has been charged by the Ministerial Council on Energy (MCE) to review the impacts of the introduction of renewable target legislation and the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) on the existing energy market frameworks and where problems exist develop workable solutions to the problems. The AEMC have prepared a number of reports to date and have identified the connection of remote renewable projects as being a major issue that requires attention. To that end the AEMC have suggested the introduction of Network Extensions for Remote Generation (NERGs) where the market funds large connection assets from renewable hubs into the existing transmission system with end users ultimately bearing the risk of under- utilisation of the assets. The AEMC are due to report to the MCE with its recommendations this year.

Geodynamics see the NERG solution as a significant development and a positive step in ultimately connecting the Cooper Basin geothermal resource into the existing market.

In addition to the AEMC review, Infrastructure Australia have also identified the acute need to extend and augment the existing transmission system to facilitate the connection of remote renewable power generation sources and are investigating potential nation building infrastructure projects to satisfy this need.

Despite this increased awareness and the positive noises coming from regulators and government agencies, Geodynamics has been progressing the preliminary planning for transmission assets connecting the Cooper Basin resource into the existing system. During the year, Geodynamics commissioned a study by Worley Parsons to identify the optimum connection solution for Geodynamics to connect its first significant power capacity (~500 MW). The Company is confident that this planning and pre-feasibility work will ultimately be utilised by Transmission Network Service Providers (TNSPs) to design and construct the required transmission infrastructure.

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