Labor puts key but contested transmission line on hold until after state election, pending cost review - Renew Economy

A contested transmission line project in an Australian state has been put on hold by the Labor government until after a state election, pending a cost review. The delay means the project will not proceed until after voters have been consulted.

Where this fits

Transmission overbuild is a hidden cost of the renewables-only pathway. New lines are needed because wind and solar sites do not co-locate with demand, and because weather-dependent generation requires redundant capacity to firm supply during low-output periods. When projects face political resistance over cost, governments defer them. That deferral compounds the whole-system problem: wind and solar cannot be firmed efficiently without the transmission backbone they depend on, yet the lines themselves are expensive and face local opposition. This is a hard reality the transition underestimates. A firm generation source, nuclear or gas, sited near load would require less transmission, lower costs, and face fewer planning delays.

What it means

Delaying transmission locks in grid vulnerability. Renewable generation without firm firming capacity and connecting transmission creates blackout risk and forces reliance on gas plants running inefficiently at part-load. It also delays the capital deployment that makes the renewable pathway work at all. The political cycle, deferring hard infrastructure decisions past elections, is now a feature of Australia's energy policy. That same cycle does not allow for long-term nuclear build, which is banned by law, leaving the grid dependent on weather and on repeated electoral patience with rising costs and congestion.