The Victorian Government Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) has released a Draft Victorian Transmission Plan. DEECA has sought feedback on the plan which will set out the energy infrastructure requirements for Victoria over the coming 15 years.
Climateworks has many years of experience analysing decarbonisation across the economy and the role of the electricity system in least-cost scenarios, including with a focus on Victoria. Because of this expertise, AEMO has engaged CSIRO, supported by Climateworks, to conduct multi-sector modelling to quantify how electricity demand will change under different emissions reduction scenarios. This modelling contributes to and underpins elements of AEMO’s planning and forecasting materials. This submission draws on this work for AEMO and other Climateworks analysis with a Victorian perspective.
Rapidly decarbonising the electricity and energy system is essential for Victoria to meet its emission reduction goals. Electricity generation is Victoria’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. The use of fossil fuels to produce electricity and heat was responsible for 39 per cent of Victoria’s total emissions in 2023 (Department of Climate Change, Energy, Water and the Environment 2025). Transitioning to renewable energy will not only reduce emissions directly but also create a powerful ripple effect driving decarbonisation across other economic sectors.
The energy transformation is complex. It requires planning and forecasting to consider evolving energy generation, transmission and storage technologies, changing market and regulatory conditions, and emerging opportunities in renewable energy and resource exports. VicGrid plays an important role in ensuring Victoria’s electricity infrastructure supports state and national decarbonisation goals while maintaining a reliable, secure, safe and affordable electricity supply.
Submission summary
Climateworks suggests VicGrid consider the following recommendations as it develops the final Victorian Transmission Plan.:
- Show how the least-regrets pathway selected in the Plan supports the deployment of renewables and transmission infrastructure on a scale consistent with the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C and Victoria’s emissions and energy targets.
- Demonstrate how the modelling to inform the Plan will create an energy system that supports strong industrial regions and enables Australia and Victoria to become a ‘renewable energy superpower’, including analysis to forecast and plan supply, storage and transmission solutions for ‘regional ISPs’.
- Update existing assumptions around demand and transmission costs, which have changed materially since ISP 2024, and include more detailed assumptions around the geography of demand growth across Victoria, integrated with one or more ‘regional ISPs’.
- Call on the ECMC to quickly integrate demand-side energy management and improve demand-side performance to enable Victorian transmission to be optimised across the supply and demand sides.
- Consider greater integration with distribution planning, in line with recent ISP reforms and the importance of optimising CER.
- Prioritise timely connection and optimal siting of batteries or other storage to enable grid stability and renewable integration.
- Undertake planning and assessment at a regional level for new infrastructure, rather than on a project-by-project basis, to speed up the planning permissions pathway for eligible renewable energy and transmission projects. This would enable relevant renewable energy projects to be granted priority status in the permit-granting process, ensuring project-focused concerns are addressed promptly, while ensuring that potentially significant adverse environmental or social effects are identified and avoided.
More detail on these recommendations can be found in the submission [PDF 0.3mb].