Agriculture
26 May, 2023
'Inadvertent' map publication adds to AEMO trust challenge: Walsh
AUSTRALIAN Energy Market Operator is under fire for "inadvertently" publish a new Option 5A route for its VNI West high voltage towers through the Loddon with local MP Peter Walsh saying the company needed to do much better if it wanted community...
AUSTRALIAN Energy Market Operator is under fire for "inadvertently" publish a new Option 5A route for its VNI West high voltage towers through the Loddon with local MP Peter Walsh saying the company needed to do much better if it wanted community trust.
After publishing the map sometime Thursday night, the page was pulled down this morning after media inquiries by the Loddon Herald and requests for clarification from some stakeholders.
AEMO told one stakeholder: "Yesterday evening, some information on the VNI West project that was being prepared for publishing on the AEMO website was inadvertently published. That information has now been removed.This was an error, and we are looking into what happened. Further information on the project will be published soon.We apologise for this error and the confusion this may have caused."
AEMO has not denied the accuracy of the Option 5A map.
Mr Walsh, theNationals leader and Member for Murray Plains, said publicationon the AEMO website wasjust another case of AEMO changing the rules to suit itself.
"The concern and confusion the energy company is creating across northern Victoria is unnecessary and in some cases quite upsetting."
He says these are major decisions “directly impacting people’s lives” and just popping things on a website is hardly what “I call community communication and consultation”.
“I would have thought the clear message AEMO has already received from the people in the path of this project is its lack of clear and open communication,”: Mr Walsh says.
“Wehave had the Loddon Herald having to bring the company to the people through its excellent forum, when AEMO should have already been doing this,” he says.
“And now, today, people are waking up to see there is yet another change to the plan, but once again with no open heads up and very little detail.
“It can’t be this hard, but AEMO needs to do a lot more to get the community trust back.”