Energy officials hope cash will persuade rural people to love thy neighbour

The Victorian government says it wants to know.

After a long refusal to consider compensation to those impacted by new power infrastructure, the government is now suggested up to $40,000 compensation to "significantly impacted" neighbours.

The problem is there is no nationally agreed definition of what a neighbour is.

Many have already labelled the offer as a "sweetener" to soothe rural communities who object to the "blot on their rural landscape", as the transmission lines have been called.

Earlier in the month, Transmission Company Victoria announced an increased payment to rural landholders from $10,000 to a maximum of $50,000 just to allow property access.

This is not to provide an easement but just allow access for route planning.

Many hundreds of kilometres of the lines need to be build to connect renewable power projects to the national electricity grid.

The government has opened a public consultation in an attempt to progress projects like VNI West and the Western Renewables link.

The landholders who will have to host the lines have been offered cash inducements of $200,000 per kilometre of powerline, on top of existing compensation arrangements.

After rejecting the idea of undergrounding the powerlines because of cost, the spectre of 80 metre high steel lattice towers marching across country Victoria has horrified many communities.

The MCG light towers are 75 metres high, equivalent to a 24-storey building.

There is a push to define a neighbour as someone living less than 400 metres from a powerline or energy infrastructure.

The proposed "REZ Community Benefits Plan" proposes transmission companies (not the government) make a one-off maximum payment of up to $40,000 "to eligible significantly impacted neighbours".

That amount is to be "scaled in proportion to the distance of the dwelling or sensitive land use to the nearest new transmission infrastructure".

The neighbour deals are to be made to urban residents as well as rural property owners.

The government's discussion paper suggests a "neighbour" would be defined as being within 400 metres of the new powerlines in rural areas, and 200 metres in urban areas.

A football field is about 180 metres long.

Powerlink in Queensland is striking neighbour deals within a kilometre of power projects.

NSW's Transgrid strikes neighbour deals "on a case by case basis".

Some wind farm companies negotiate on neighbour deals with a two kilometre limit.

WestWind Energy which wants to build around 100km of transmission lines across the Wimmera to connect renewable energy projects to the national grid.

"Eligible neighbours" would receive free electricity for the life of the project.

The then Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Andrew Dyer released a report earlier in the year critical of the community distrust the powerline projects had caused.

In the report, Mr Dyer recommended consideration for potentially affected neighbours which "may include residents and landowners in a proximity range of 0km to 5km from potential project asset locations".

Mr Dyer's report also stated: "Developers commonly propose screening of the visual impacts of wind or solar farm by planting trees. An often-cited issue is the predicted length of time for a newly planted tree to grow to provide sufficient screening, bringing into question the effectiveness of such mitigation."

The Victorian government's draft REZ Community Benefits Plan is now seeking feedback on some aspects of the plan, including the approach to significantly impacted neighbour benefits.

Consultation will finish in June 2024 before the release of a final version of the plan later in 2024.

"Eligibility criteria for these benefits, such as proximity to new transmission infrastructure in rural settings, is yet to be finalised and subject to feedback received through public consultation," a government spokesman said.

In March, the government announced the creation of VicGrid, to "modernise the way new energy infrastructure is planned".

In relation to neighbour deals, VicGrid says it "recognises that neighbouring landholders to those hosting the infrastructure sometimes also feel its impacts" and was now "considering this issue further".

VicGrid said it was proposed for transmission companies to make a one-off maximum payment of up to $40,000 to eligible landholders, with the amount scaled in proportion to the distance of the dwelling or sensitive land use to the nearest new transmission infrastructure.

VicGrid said it came to this amount by referencing similar, international schemes, such as the EirGrid model in Ireland "with the maximum amount increased to reflect the larger anticipated height of transmission lines in Victoria".

VicGrid said transmission companies can choose to "set tiers" for compensation proportional to distance "for example up to 100m, 200m, 300m and 400m away from transmission infrastructure".

VicGrid is also seeking feedback on potential exceptional circumstances when payments above the proposed maximum of $40,000 should apply to significantly impacted neighbour benefits.

The link to provide feedback is here.