Energy Track

A single landholder:

Agricultural impacts, visual amenity, cultural heritage as well as safety and environmental impacts are key community concerns in the development of new transmission corridors. Use of the existing railway signal tower easement with a single landholder minimises the time, cost, and social licence risks that installing new transmission lines across kilometres of privately-owned land presents.

Future electrification:

The northern region of Melbourne and the Hume corridor are experiencing strong load growth. As the transition to electrified railway infrastructure continues, Tetris Energy proposes that the design of power poles is technology neutral, so that the poles can be engineered to allow for various configurations of electrification of the line beyond Wallan.

Unlocks renewable resources:

The northeast region of Victoria offers a diversity in wind characteristics in comparison to the western part of Victoria where the bulk of the Victorian wind farms are located. Having new generation projects located in different wind resource zones is desirable from an energy diversification and reliability perspective and is favourable for matching to the energy demand load of consumers.

Pollution free:

The project will connect to the Ausnet transmission network allowing the pollution free electrons to be used across the grid. This includes the capacity for future clean energy transport developments (e.g. Hume Hwy EV charging) and will assist to supply clean energy to the National Electricity Market to support the transition to a net-zero and climate resilient Victoria by 2050 as outlined in the State’s Climate Change Strategy.

There are many benefits from the Energy Track project, including:

• Utilising existing railway infrastructure (redundant signal towers).

• Supporting V/Line’s progression towards emissions reduction targets as per its Emissions Reduction Roadmap.

• Encouraging ARTC’s progression towards emissions reduction targets outlined in its Statement of Expectations 2023.

• Overcoming a major prohibitor to future electrification of the State’s regional rail network.

• Assisting in facilitating a new clean energy supply for homes and businesses in Northeast Victoria.

• Opportunity for SEC’s investment pipeline of potential assets and technologies for short and long-term supply strategy, and

• the creation of jobs and economic benefit in regional Victoria.

There is an opportunity to align this with the replacement of redundant signalling and communication poles to connect to the grid at the Kalkallo substation and including the nearby 500kV line. The Albury to Melbourne rail corridor is well suited in terms of location to both potential renewable energy resources and grid connection options.

Tetris Energy is committed to ongoing and genuine engagement with project stakeholders to build strong relationships and establish a socially sustainable project.

Extensive consultation has been undertaken to date, and we will continue to engage throughout the planning and detailed design process as more assessments and detailed information becomes available.

This consultation provides valuable insights into identifying opportunities and constraints for the proposal.

Tetris Energy has experience and understanding of the requirements of working within the rail corridor and is aware that managing safety risk and operational impact is of paramount importance. We propose a design and construction methodology that would have no impact to rail operations, with our proposal involving locating poles in non-operational sections of the rail corridor easement, meaning construction works can occur in designated works zone, segregated by installation of temporary fencing to create a works area that separates workers from live tracks.