en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basslink

Basslink

Contributors to Wikimedia projects10-13 minutes4/1/2005

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Basslink
Location
Country	Australia
Coordinates	38°15′45″S146°36′29″E / 38.26250°S 146.60806°E 38°24′22″S147°4′6″E / 38.40611°S 147.06833°E 41°2′32″S146°52′07″E / 41.04222°S 146.86861°E 41°6′53″S146°53′31″E / 41.11472°S 146.89194°E
From	Loy Yang Power Station, Victoria
Passes through	Bass Strait
To	George Townsubstation, northernTasmania
Ownership information
Owner	APA Group
Construction information
Construction started	2003
Construction cost	$875 million[1]
Commissioned	2005
Technical information
Type	submarine cable
Type of current	HVDC
Total length	370 km (230 mi)
Power rating	500 MW (670,000 hp) (630 MW temporarily)

TheBasslink (^[2]) electricity interconnector is a 370 km (230 mi) 500 MW (670,000 hp)high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable linking the electricity grids of the states ofVictoria andTasmania inAustralia, crossingBass Strait, connecting theLoy Yang Power Station, Victoria on the Australian mainland to theGeorge Town substation in northern Tasmania. Basslink is bidirectional and enables Hydro Tasmania to supply some of the peak load capacity to the Australian mainland and take some of the excess power from the mainland when the generation on the mainland exceeds the demand.

Financial benefits from the Basslink investment included reduced or deferred need to invest in further base load generation facilities, and potential to profit from selling peak load power into a market in which prices are generally higher, and because the cable was also used to supply power to Tasmania in times of drought, as most of Tasmania's electricity generation ishydroelectricity. A government review of Basslink in 2011 found, "Basslink-related costs have been around $130 million ($ nominal) greater than the actual revenue benefits... [However] Taking both direct and indirect sources of value [such as increasedenergy securityin times of drought] together, Hydro Tasmania concludes that over the period 2006-07 to 2010-11 the average net benefit of Basslink to its business is in excess of $40 million per annum".^[1]However economist John Lawrence estimated that the 2015-2016 Basslink outage cost Hydro "between $140 and $180 million."^[3]

Basslink is owned byAPA Group (Australia)after acquisition in October 2022.

History[edit]

When the Board of Hydro Tasmania^[4]originally entered into a preliminary agreement to build Basslink in 2000, it was projected to cost A$500 million.^[5]Efforts to prevent corrosion of pipelines and other factors ultimately meant it cost around A$800m to build.^[6]

The interconnector was constructed between 2003 and 2005 as an asset of National Grid Australia Pty Ltd, which itself was owned by UK companyNational Grid plc.

On 1 December 2005, electrical power flowed across Basslink for the first time, as part of the testing procedure. At midnight on the morning of Saturday, 29 April 2006, the link was officially enabled for commercial trading of energy on theNational Electricity Market.

On 31 August 2007, CitySpring Infrastructure Trust, a wholly owned subsidiary ofTemasek, completed the acquisition of Basslink Pty. Ltd. group, i.e. a conglomerate of 10 commercial subjects owning the Basslink cable infrastructure, with a totalenterprise valueof AU$1.175 billion.^[7]

Since then, CitySpring Infrastructure Trust has morphed into theKeppel Infrastructure Trust, which is listed on theSingapore Stock Exchange, two thirds owned by the public and one third byTemasek, the $350 billion sovereign wealth fund of the Singapore government.

Basslink derives most of its cashflow from a 25-year term Basslink Services Agreement withHydro Tasmania, the electricity producer owned byTasmania, which commenced on 28 April 2006.^[8]Hydro Tasmania pays a Basslink interconnector facility fee for the transport of the electrical energy of about AU$70 million p.a. This facility fee is said to have a variable factor linked to the interest rate.^[9]

The direction of power is usually from Tasmania to the mainland, but reversed in 2020 due to dry weather, causing less hydropower.^[10]

2015-2016 outage[edit]

On 21 December 2015, Basslink was disconnected due to a faulty interconnector approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) off the Tasmanian coast. It was originally expected that Basslink would be repaired and returned to service by 19 March 2016,^[11]but the link was not restored until 13 June 2016.^[12]A separate non-cable fault caused another failure on 22 June.^[13]Power was restored in the evening of 23 June, after almost 36 hours.^[14]

2021-2022 Receivership and Contract Dispute[edit]

On 12 November 2021, the companies that owned and operated the Basslink undersea power cable between Tasmania and Victoria were placed into voluntary administration. The company owed $A40 million to the Tasmanian state government and Hydro—Tasmania for the 2015 outage.

On 10 February 2022, the Tasmanian Government through Hydro Tasmania terminated the Basslink Services Agreement (BSA) contract.^[15]The interconnector cable would remain in service while negotiations continue with the administrators of Basslink to alter contract terms during the period of receivership, with Hydro Tasmania offering a one month extension of key BSA terms as an interim solution whilst alternative arrangements are discussed.^[16]However, this proposed interim arrangement was rejected by Basslink on 16 February 2022.^[17]