PIAC responded to TransGrid’s draft report to Reinforce the NSW Southern Shared Network or ‘HumeLink’.
We provide principles for the fairer and more efficient allocation of risk and cost between industry and consumers for new generation and network infrastructure. We consider risk should be borne by those best placed to manage it, making it inappropriate for consumers to bear it alone. We consider costs should be allocated to those who benefit from the investment and where it is not practical and transparent to identify or measure the beneficiaries, those who cause costs should pay them.
We argue Snowy 2.0 will be the main beneficiary of HumeLink and so should pay for a portion of its costs. PIAC recommends TransGrid determine the share of benefits from the investment that accrue to Snowy 2.0 and to consumers, and that TransGrid identifies any imbalance of costs and benefits for NSW consumers and examine options to address this.
