Cr Geoff Akers moved an urgent business motion at the August council meeting about a proposed new renewable energy zone that affects Greater Shepparton.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
City of Greater Shepparton councillors have moved to find out more about a proposed new renewable energy zone between Shepparton East and Benalla.
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Cr Geoff Akers moved an urgent business motion at the council meeting on Tuesday, August 26, that council engage an independent consultant to conduct a detailed review of the Central North Renewable Energy Zone, contained within the 2025 Victorian Transmission Plan.
Council will also consult with the Greater Shepparton community to better understand the potential benefits or consequences of this proposal.
Council will then make a submission to VicGrid that is informed by the findings of the review and consultation with affected landowners.
The new area of land between Shepparton East and Benalla in the Central North zone — one of six proposed zones in Victoria — had not been included in the previous draft of the plan, thus meaning there had been no chance for anyone affected by it to make submissions.
The yellow-lined area shows where the proposed Central North renewable energy zone was on the Victorian Transmission Plan draft, while the blue area shows the new zones in the latest plan.
The previously proposed Central North REZ marked a larger area of land between Shepparton and Bendigo, but it has since been reduced in the updated plan, and this new area added.
Cr Akers said the updated plan came as a “significant surprise to council”.
“This area covers some of Victoria’s highest value dry-land agricultural land,” he said.
“That area of Dookie has some of the most consistent high-yielding crops.
“We need to investigate if they need to be protected.”
Councillors had a meeting with VicGrid earlier in the day, with some councillors saying this was the first they had heard about the new REZ zone.
VicGrid had only released its new plan a few days earlier.
Council will undertake community consultation about the proposal, so that council can formulate its own stance on the issue and advocate for the Greater Shepparton community in its submission to VicGrid.
Mayor Shane Sali said council needed to start the report process as soon as possible because VicGrid was taking submissions on the new zone for six weeks from mid-September.
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