Transgrid is leaning towards a roughly $3.5 billion poles and wires upgrade as it weighs its options to close a gap in the “ring” of transmission lines linking New South Wales’ coastal load centres with its renewable energy zones and other major network upgrades and mega-projects, like Snowy 2.0.
In a Project Assessment Draft Report (PADR) published on Monday, Transgrid has outlined six possible ways forward for Sydney Ring South, a project identified by the Australian Market Energy Operator (AEMO) as necessary to shore up the electricity supply to Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle.
“As coal-fired power stations reach end-of-life, our electricity is increasingly sourced from lower-cost renewable energy sources located across NSW,” said Jason Krstanoski, Transgrid’s executive general manager of network, in a statement on Monday.
“That means the existing transmission corridor approaching Sydney from the south is under increasing pressure, creating a bottleneck that limits electricity flow and reduces our ability to deliver new cheaper forms of power to our rapidly growing cities and support an increasingly electrified modern economy.”
The PADR, which is the first stage in the independent cost-benefit regulatory process, proposes a range of options, including augmentations to the existing 330 kV network and a new 500 kV transmission line that would more than double the capacity of the southern transmission corridor into Sydney.
