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Daniel Andrews’ renewables failure costing families

The Andrews Labor Government has failed to plan for new renewables entering the electricity grid and it’s costing Victorians. 

The $650 million Tilt Renewables Dundonnell Windfarm is the most recent example of Labor incompetence.   The windfarm in Western Victoria is producing energy but the state’s energy grid can only access a small portion, meaning higher bills at the worst possible time.  

With only 33 per cent of this project’s capacity being able to be released from this project into the grid, Tilt Chief Executive Deon Campbell described the failure to properly update local electricity grid infrastructure to cope with new renewables as “trying to rebuild the plane while it’s flying”.

Almost two years ago Labor was warned by the Australian Energy Market Operator, that a significant investment in transmission infrastructure upgrades was needed to deal with the sudden increase in renewables in Western Victoria. Yet the construction on these upgrades is yet to begin.

This windfarm, along with other renewable energy generators in the Western Victoria region dubbed the “Rhombus of Regret”, has become a victim of the Andrews Labor Government’s poor planning around transmission infrastructure.  It has also led to many dire consequences beyond this single project, including increased outages, forced generation stoppages by AEMO in order to protect the integrity of the grid and up to 20 per cent of energy lost in transmission due to the inadequate infrastructure.

Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Energy and Renewables, Ryan Smith:

“Daniel Andrews and Lily D’Ambrosio must be held accountable for their failure to properly plan for the renewables entering the grid. When around a third of the energy generated sometimes cannot enter aging infrastructure and is lost, you cannot claim to be using clean energy effectively.

“Labor is strong on spin but slow on substance regarding renewables. They love glossy press releases about clean energy, but much of the power from projects they prop up never gets to consumers.”

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