Project: VNI West - Impacted Landowner Consultation

Advocating for landowners to support final route determination.

Client: Transgrid

Project Dates: February 2024 - September 2025

Services Delivered:

• Strategy & action plan development

• Landowner communications & collateral development

• Remote community engagement

• Negotiations and land acquisition

The Challenge:

To enable the effective management of project social risk and to facilitate the regulatory approvals required to support the project's delivery, there is a need to build relationships with effected landowners to ensure that their interests are being represented and managed fairly throughout the route refinement and easement agreement process.

Project background:

Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector West (VNI West) is a core component and priority project in the Australian Energy Market Operator's (AEMO) 2022 Integrated System Plan, which confirms the need for both short and longer-term investment, to increase the transfer capacity between states in the National Electricity Market (NEM).

Our Approach:

Social Atlas, in partnership with Aurecon and Transgrid, provided highly skilled, regionally based consultants to work as embedded Place Managers for the project, managing relationships with landowners along the preferred route alignment. Place Managers bring time, space, and trust to the dynamic between the project and the landowner. They provide a vital link between landowner issues and the project's technical disciplines, advising on how best to engage individuals for different project needs and outcomes. Effective coordination and collaboration with the project team is essential to managing human impacts and social risk.

Our Place Managers worked in the field, meeting landowners on-property to understand local concerns and opportunities. They considered local nuances and sought to improve sentiment and outcomes for impacted landowners. These insights supported the provision of strategic advice on stakeholder engagement issues and landowner risk management.

They also provided ongoing input into engagement plans and project collateral development. In addition to their own experience on other transmission projects, our Place Managers consulted with key stakeholders on other projects and stayed abreast of industry developments, ensuring a lessons learnt, best practice approach. Their work supported a greater information flow between community and planners, contributing to the ongoing route refinement and land acquisition process.