AusNet expands network to support Beveridge growth

AusNet is investing $85 million in a new zone substation and network upgrades in Beveridge, northern Melbourne, to support suburban growth. The project has two stages and will expand electricity infrastructure in the region.

Where this fits

This is a transmission and distribution cost that vindicates the Energy Realism thesis on whole-system expenses. Renewable generation is cheap per megawatt-hour, but the grid that carries it is not. A high-renewables network requires overbuild: more poles, wires, transformers and substations to handle weather-dependent output peaks and valley-filling. Every growth corridor now triggers substation expansion driven by solar capacity (daytime peak) and evening demand peaks that need to be met by battery or gas. A firm, centralized nuclear plant would require far less distribution infrastructure per unit of firm power delivered.

What it means

Victoria's electricity transition is being built incrementally, suburb by suburb, through thousands of small capex decisions like this one. The cumulative cost of transmission and distribution overbuild across Australia will eventually dwarf the renewable generation asset base. Meanwhile, Australia's supply chain for the materials, inverters and batteries that fill that grid is owned by China. Beveridge's new substation is modern and necessary, but it is also another piece of grid infrastructure, another 85 million dollars, that could have been avoided by deploying firm, low-material nuclear alongside renewables from the outset, and by retaining the regulatory and industrial capability to do so.