Energy minister Penny Sharpe announces inquiry into transmission lines

That's a question a new parliamentary panel is set to investigate.

Environmental concerns and the bushfire risk posed by a critical link in the national electricity network will be aired in a new inquiry.

The $3.3 billion HumeLink is expected to become a crucial component in the National Electricity Market by allowing Sydney to draw more energy from southern NSW.

But local communities are worried the overhead 500-kilovolt transmission line will significantly increase the risk of deadly blazes in areas still recovering from the Black Summer bushfires while also cutting through prime farmland.

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A parliamentary inquiry will now examine the feasibility of putting major transmission lines underground after a request from NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe.

NSW Farmers have backed the announcement of the inquiry.

"We support a robust inquiry, because it will find that there are places where undergrounding wires is a win-win for production and community amenity that has not been addressed to date," Energy Transition Working Group chair Reg Kidd said.

"Until now undergrounding has been ignored or dismissed as too expensive, not because of a cost/benefit analysis, but rather through the lack of will to fully investigate the impacts of huge infrastructure on rural communities.

"There has been a lot of just drawing lines on maps and justifying route selection in order to minimise cost and get onto the next project, and the real impacts of above ground infrastructure have not been assessed, and this is what this inquiry will reveal."

Independent MP Joe McGirr, whose Wagga Wagga electorate will host HumeLink, said after years of discussion, the facts needed to be laid out on the table

"If undergrounding is better for the environment - it reduces the fire risk, it's better for farmland - then we ought to know how much better and are people prepared to pay a bit extra on their power bills to get that solution?" he told AAP.

"Overwhelmingly, people are undergrounding in Europe and California."

The inquiry will examine the costs and benefits of similar projects and what impact a subterranean line would have on the environment and the project's timeline.

Connections to other critical transmission projects, including connections to the state's five renewable energy zones, will also be examined.

The government was committed to delivering the renewable energy transition that NSW deserved "in a way which is cost-effective and environmentally responsible", Ms Sharpe said on Tuesday.

"We are also committed to ensuring local communities are engaged at every stage of the transition," she said.

"This inquiry is an opportunity for everyone to have their say and to understand the issues that need to be weighed up when delivering this infrastructure."

NSW is due to decommission three coal-fired power stations in the next decade, including Eraring in 2025.

The loss of coal-fired power stations from the national grid made it essential HumeLink was completed by 2026, network operator Transgrid has said.

But it has suggested a subterranean HumeLink would cost $11.5 billion - more than three times the price tag for an overland network.

Opponents from the group Stop, Rethink HumeLink say the figure is vastly exaggerated.

Australian Associated Press

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