To meet forecast long-term electricity demand in South East Queensland, Powerlink plans to construct a new 500kV transmission line between Springdale (near Gatton) and Blackwall (near Ipswich). This proposed 500kV transmission line will ensure a safe, reliable and efficient supply of high voltage electricity is maintained well into the future.
Easements for this new transmission line were acquired over the past 20 years. Powerlink has strategically acquired easements for this transmission line in advance of the need to construct, in order to provide land use certainty for the community into the future. This project has also been identified in relevant public State Government infrastructure plans since 2005.
Powerlink has received Ministerial designation for the project.
The process of Ministerial designation serves as planning approval, which allows certain land or easements to be used for ‘community infrastructure’ purposes (electricity works) under the Sustainable Planning Act 2009.
Prior to submitting its request for Ministerial designation, Powerlink invited submissions from the community. Each submission received was considered and responded to by Powerlink. A copy of each submission and response was provided in the documentation submitted to the Minister responsible for considering the designation application.
The Ministerial designation process followed an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) undertaken by environmental consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff, which concluded that, provided Powerlink implements the recommendations outlined in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and the associated Final Environmental Management Plan (EMP), there are no environmental, social or economic factors that would prevent the project from proceeding.
Powerlink regularly reviews the need and timing of its projects, primarily based on forecast electricity demand, to ensure projects are not delivered too early or too late to meet network reliability requirements and are delivered at the lowest long-run cost to consumers. The most current electricity demand forecast figures have indicated a slowdown in electricity demand growth. This has resulted in a revision in timing for the need of the Springdale to Blackwall project to 2018/19.
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