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Considered projects

Connection enquiries to new greenfield transmission projects, such as Western Renewables Link and Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector West, cannot be formally lodged and progressed until these projects reach considered project status.

To be classed as a considered project, as defined in the National Electricity Rules (NER), the following criteria must be met:

  • necessary land and easements must be acquired
  • all necessary planning and development approvals must be obtained
  • the project must have passed the regulatory investment test for transmission, or an intention to proceed has been published in the Transmission Annual Planning Report, and
  • construction must have commenced, or a firm date is set to commence.

Please refer to our transmission projects page for information on current project status.

The enquiry stage

The enquiry stage is the first formal stage of the connection process under Clause 5.3 (transmission network connections) of the NER.

To make an enquiry, you need to submit a Connection enquiry form and any supporting information.

Once an enquiry has been submitted, a $18,500 fee is charged to you for the enquiry stage and for the provision of the enquiry response.

We will prepare a formal response that will typically include:

  • requirements in respect of technical studies and access standards
  • land use and type of transmission service
  • preliminary connection program and connection options
  • preliminary system strength impact assessment and system strength remediation
  • further information about the pre-application option and requirements to complete an application to connect.

After the connection enquiry response has been provided to you, we will offer a meeting with the VicGrid Connections team to discuss the enquiry response details.

Further to this, you may also ask VicGrid to provide transmission network data to assist you in undertaking connection studies. For more information, visit our Data provision page.

We inform the incumbent Declared Transmission System Operators (DTSO) of potential connections following enquiries to their assets, omitting specific details until the connection applicant is ready to proceed with a connection.

The NER enable any person to fund VicGrid to conduct a Scale Efficient Network Extension study. A SENE study will identify the likelihood of multiple network users accessing transmission infrastructure, and the cost of accommodating those network users. Applicants who are interested in funding a SENE study should contact VicGrid at this stage.

Next stage

Page last updated: 29/10/25