Energy

North Queensland’s electricity prices are having an adverse effect on industry and the local economy. The current uncertainties over pricing and secure access to energy markets, including Townsville and North Queensland’s lack of connection to the national natural gas network, is negatively impacting the national and international competitiveness of North Queensland industry, the region’s capacity to attract investment and the economy’s ability to generate sustainable employment.

An energy project earmarked for North Queensland and declared with ‘Coordinated Project’ status by Queensland’s Coordinator-General is the CopperString 2.0 Project, which is a part of a pipeline of future investment the region is pursuing.

The $1.5 billion CopperString 2.0 Project seeks to establish a transmission line to connect the North West Minerals Province to the east coast electricity grid which would vastly improve the economics of energy supply across North Queensland. Construction of the CopperString 2.0 transmission line would increase gas and renewable energy generation capacity in North Queensland by over 1,200MW. The Federal Government has allocated $4.7M in grant funding to accelerate development activities supportive of the CopperString 2.0 Project and the State Government has announced $1.68M towards energy supply and transmission projects as part of its North West Queensland Economic Diversification Strategy of which $1.18M of this will support CopperString 2.0.

In addition to CopperString 2.0, Townsville Enterprise is advocating for further measures to drive down the cost of electricity in the North, which can be viewed in our 2020 State and Federal Budget Submissions HERE.

Townsville Enterprise and its partners are strongly advocating for a response to this critical issue to allow local business to remain competitive as well as to attract further investment into the region.