The Australian Energy Market Operator has defended its decision to skip a meeting in western Victoria, where residents and farmers fought becoming a thoroughfare for power lines.
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After a convoy of tractors lined the streets of St Arnaud on Monday to protest lines being built on local farms, about 300 people convened in the town hall, but AEMO was notably absent.
Speaking on ABC's Country Hour on Tuesday, AEMO's Victorian planning group manager Nicola Falcon denied the organisation had avoided the big crowd or was trying to control the consultation.
"It was a different format to what we had agreed," Ms Falcon said.
"We want to be able to have productive discussions with a number of different stakeholders."
She said AEMO aimed to discuss its projects with as many people as possible.
"Consumers want affordable, reliable electricity, and we really do want to be able to explain to as many different people as possible that will help share that low cost," Ms Falcon said.
But the Victoria Energy Policy Centre's Professor Bruce Mountain said the two projects - the Western Renewables Link and the Victoria-to-New South Wales Interconnector West - were seeded from NEMLink, a transmission plan more than a decade old.
"It was written in 2010 at a time when solar was 10 times more expensive than it is now and wind was three times more expensive," Prof Mountain told AAP.
"It had a semblance of credibility because fossil-fuel differences could have justified, to some degree, transmission expansion between states."
Prof Mountain and former Powerlink chief operating officer Simon Bartlett's submission on the project says the grid would be better served by building on existing infrastructure in Gippsland, the heart of Victorian energy production for more than half a century.
"We've got all these circuits that have got masses of spare capacity on them,'' he said.
"They can be augmented easily because there's easements that can be upgraded from 220kV to 500kV."
Prof Mountain said AEMO's project viability models had made transmission in Gippsland seem more expensive than it was, while bolstering the perceived benefit of the western Victorian projects.
"It will be built over five to eight years, and when it's complete transmission charges will double," he said.
"And it will double for so little additional transmission capability."
The Victorian government has defended the project, AEMO and its consultation.
"AEMO have consulted with communities and experts on the design of these transmission projects and will continue to engage as the projects progress, ensuring they deliver benefits for both local communities and energy consumers," a spokeswoman said.
"New transmission is vital for securing clean, affordable power for every Victorian town, and enabling the development of our renewable energy industry as we work towards net-zero emissions by 2045."
Australian Associated Press
