Good old TasNetworks!

It is owned and funded by the taxpayers of Tasmania, ostensibly for the benefit of all Tasmanians. Now its CEO reckons a takeover of its subsidiary Marinus Link Pty Ltd was always planned.

A look back at the mess that currently constitutes the energy sector in this tate will see that as the hyperbole about Tasmania’s role as ‘Battery of the Nation’ gathered momentum, reality was cast adrift in favour of hard-hat and hi-viz photo opportunities for Liberal Energy Minister Guy Barnett and a bevy of grinning acolytes.

Contributing less than 4% of the energy produced for the National Electricity Market, somehow our hydro dams would be able to store enough energy to keep the mainland’s lights on when coal and gas generators pulled the fuse.

The ‘vision’ required our landscape to be festooned with thousands of wind turbines (no exaggeration there) which would shore up the NEM and supplement local demand.

Two cables would be needed under Bass Strait to get the 1500 megawatt flow to Victoria – and coincidentally, would allow imports of give-away-priced power from the mainland to top up any shortfall here.

Surplus wind energy (again, at practically no cost) would pump ‘used’ water back uphill to a reservoir, effectively recharging the water battery, which would be turned on when demand on the NEM created sky-high prices.

Then followed another revelation: Tasmania would also become the world’s leading renewable hydrogen producer, with electrolysers utilising this apparent bounty of energy to create replacement fuel for large diesel engines.

The key component in keeping these dreams alive was the Marinus interconnector. But from a $2 billion thought bubble, it progressed over four years to a $3.8 billion millstone around the Tasmanian government’s neck. Calls for transparent financial modelling were avoided, with a fallback position of late 2024 before a final financial decision needed to be made.

Meanwhile, successive Federal Governments poured millions into Marinus Link Pty Ltd, often matched by Tasmanian funds, but always accompanied by upbeat and flashy announcements by the Tasmanian Liberals that the cables would be a “game-changer”.

Earlier this month, The Mercury reported: “[A] Marinus Link representative said the project would be a game changer for Tasmania, Victoria and the nation.”

Never was a truer word spoken.

While keeping the imminent restructure of Marinus Link Pty Ltd a secret from its owners – the people of Tasmania – behind-the-scenes deals have been brokered which now see this shaky project taken over by the Federal Government.

Headed ‘A community update for Victoria‘, Marinus Link quietly wrote on its website: “Early 2024 will see Marinus Link Pty Ltd become a standalone entity…This will mean Marinus Link is no longer a subsidiary of TasNetworks, which is owned by the State of Tasmania.”

Tasmanians will be told ‘in due course’, according to a TasNetworks spokesperson, quoted in The Mercury (January 17).

The new ‘standalone entity’ will be owned by the Federal Government (49%), the Victorian Government (33.3%) and Tasmanian Government (17.7%) – with Tasmania having a get-out option once the project is complete.

Anyone recalling the big sell to Tasmania when Marinus was first announced might wonder how we came to owning such a piddling stake in what was to be our biggest-ever infrastructure development.

It is a fact that the Marinus Project is now just one cable, with an estimated cost of $3.3 billion, which can deliver only half the 1500MW export load. Speculation that it will never be financially viable (just like Basslink) coupled with the lessening relevance of deep water storage as large-scale batteries are rolled out leaves little doubt that the debt might bankrupt the state.

However, after all the high-volume spruiking by Minister Barnett looked like ending as a fizzer, an unlikely saviour in Federal Labor Minister Chris Bowen appeared – a man who has adopted the AEMO mantra of interconnection as the only strategy to cope with the switch to renewables generation.

With his $20 billion Rewiring The Nation fund, Marinus Link looks like a great little project to keep him in the limelight. The fact that it may not be a smart investment is irrelevant.

For proof of this, look at his enthusiastic rewrite of Snowy Hydro 2.0’s funding – a project which started with a $2 billion price tag; has cost around $10 b so far; and is expected to blow out to $12.5 b.

Predicted as saving Victoria and NSW from blackouts by 2021, it is unlikely to be contributing to the grid until 2029 – some eight years late, and with the apocalyptic disasters from generation swap-over not yet experienced.

Victoria, while never enthusiastic about a financial commitment to Marinus, will be happy that cheap Federal funds now give it access to back-up hydro power should there be brief glitches in its own generation.  It also means a conduit to redirect surplus energy to a bit player in the NEM. All this through a one-third stake.

As for Tasmania: Once the key proponent of a major development promised to deliver untold wealth to the state, it now finds itself just a minor player, with a get-out clause if its financial exposure is unaffordable.

But the major concern for Tasmanians is that due to this government’s unabashed greenlighting of our energy sector, we have now become a yes man in any further discussions about the rollout of renewables in this state.

A web of energy developments is inextricably linked with Marinus. “TasNetworks will still play a key role in supporting Marinus to completion – not least by building the crucial North West Transmission Developments”, says CEO Sean McGoldrick.

That’s a billion dollar build which will be repaid via your power bills – not to mention cut a swath through pristine country.

Why build these massive transmission lines?

They are needed to get privately-owned wind energy from Robbins Island and Jims Plain into the NEM (via Marinus) and also to provide reticulation power for the Cethana pumped hydro scheme.

Why build that?

Well, Tasmania is (apparently) the battery of the nation. Victoria needs the security of Tasmanian reserves. And we need pumped hydro to justify laying the second Marinus cable.

Does all this sound like a circular argument?

The harsh reality of the Marinus Project is that Tasmanians have lost control of their energy future.

Expect wind farms, solar farms and transmission lines to be built in Tasmanian ‘in the national interest’. Your local council may be stripped of its planning powers, and complaining to state politicians of either Liberal or Labor persuasion will be a waste of breath. Despite claims from Labor’s Dean Winter that they would lower power prices here, his party’s energy policy is in lock-step with the Liberals’.

As owners of Hydro Tasmania (and TasNetworks, and Aurora) our stake in what could have been a world-leading, sensibly-sized, renewable energy economy has been sold out for a song.

The maxim about ‘pissing in the wind’ has never been more relevant.

Greg Pullen is a committee member of the Central Highlands No Turbine Action Group (NTAG) and has a keen interest in renewable energy transformation, in particular its benefits for Tasmania. He is a firm believer in the KISS Principle.