Business
4 December, 2024
Powerlink defends $9 billion cost to complete CopperString
The government body said the initial “concept” proposal was not detailed enough to be costed properly.
Powerlink claims any state government audit of its CopperString budgeting will prove its $9 billion construction total is necessary because it includes realignment planning and cultural heritage approvals that were absent from the initial project plans it inherited several years ago.
A political stoush erupted in parliament last week as the new Crisafulli government produced documents revealing the “true cost” of the CopperString construction was $9 billion – a significant increase from the $6.2 billion claimed by the previous Labor government in August.
It led to calls from Robbie Katter for Powerlink to be replaced as the proponent, with the Traeger MP criticising the state-owned corporation’s management and apparent lack of expertise to deliver the transmission line project.
“The failure of Powerlink to manage and proactively drive this project highlights a shocking lack of competence,” Mr Katter said.
However, Powerlink major projects general manager Ian Lowry said the previous Labor government had received the $9 billion investment proposal in August.
He said the $9 billion investment total was divided between $8.2 billion for the estimated construction cost to completion and $800 million in capitalised interest during construction.
“We have always been very clear about what we submitted to government – and we stand by the investment proposal that we submitted in August,” Mr Lowry told North West Weekly.
“I am not surprised the new government has been briefed on what we put forward in our investment proposal and we are not surprised they are keen to ensure we are delivering good value for money and providing the right outcome for the North West.
“It seems entirely reasonable the new government will want to get their head around the project and review it – it’s a very large project. We have done a lot of detailed analysis to get the investment proposal to government to where it is, and we are very comfortable working through that with the new government.”
Mr Lowry said the expected costs of CopperString had increased from an estimated $5 billion project when Powerlink had inherited it, to $9 billion today, because the initial “concept” proposal did not include transmission line alignments that fully took into account how to surmount difficult physical terrain or cultural heritage requirements.
“I think the fundamental issue is around the maturity of the project – from when the state acquired it, until today,” he said.
“We have done a lot of work to take the project from a concept state to now being a project where you can actually contract it and build it. When the state acquired it, we got into a lot of detailed analysis about the state of the project - the ability to actually construct it.
“We looked at how the approvals had been developed.
“Some elements of the alignment were in the situation that we had to modify where some of the power lines and the substations were being proposed.”
Mr Lowry defended Powerlink’s competency to deliver the CopperString project, citing the company’s construction of more than 1200km of transmission lines across the Surat Basin to assist with coal seam gas project rollout.
“Our mandate is to build, operate and maintain the (transmission) system and we have a long heritage and legacy of doing that,” he said.