Name
Tom Everitt
Job title
Director
Organisation
TDC
Speaker biography
Tom Everitt is an experienced land access practitioner who has led landholder engagement on some of the countries' largest energy infrastructure projects. Beginning his career in 2009, Tom has undertaken landholder engagement across all stages of the project lifecycle, with expertise in land access negotiations, compulsory acquisition, and stakeholder engagement. Known for his open and practical approach, he has negotiated hundreds of access and tenure agreements and supported projects in challenging circumstances, including contested site access. Tom also trains teams and advises on landholder strategy, compensation frameworks, and regulatory compliance across Victoria’s evolving energy and transmission landscape.
Speaking At
AWIF Presentation title
Two lines, two rules: Why wind developers pay more for the same wires
AWIF Presentation summary
Wind developers in Australia face a major disadvantage when negotiating overhead transmission lines to link their turbines to the grid. Unlike state-critical arterial transmission lines, which secure permanent land tenure through permanent easements and compensate landholders once via either voluntary or compulsory acquisition (although some states are now introducing small additional tailing payments for a finite period), generators are typically required to negotiate transmission land tenure agreements on a more temporary ('as-needed') basis and therefore pay recurring per-kilometre, per-year fees. This presentation examines the social, financial and regulatory implications of this discrepancy, drawing on real-world examples from wind farm developments across regional Australia.
The presentation will focus narrowly on one issue: the tenure and payment inequity between generator-built transmission lines and government backed major transmission infrastructure. It will outline how the impacts to landholders are almost identical, how the current arrangements create long-term cost burdens, complicate financing, distort risk allocation, and importantly slow renewable project delivery. It will also look at how they also typically confuse landholders who in some cases interface with both scenarios.
The session will propose solutions for a more equal transmission tenure model to provide fairer, more consistent land access outcomes for both landholders and renewable developers, aiming to reduce negotiation timeframes, lower development risk, and improve social licence outcomes without undermining landholder rights.
This topic has not been widely explored to date and offers a fresh perspective on a persistent but emerging barrier in Australia’s energy transition.
The presentation will focus narrowly on one issue: the tenure and payment inequity between generator-built transmission lines and government backed major transmission infrastructure. It will outline how the impacts to landholders are almost identical, how the current arrangements create long-term cost burdens, complicate financing, distort risk allocation, and importantly slow renewable project delivery. It will also look at how they also typically confuse landholders who in some cases interface with both scenarios.
The session will propose solutions for a more equal transmission tenure model to provide fairer, more consistent land access outcomes for both landholders and renewable developers, aiming to reduce negotiation timeframes, lower development risk, and improve social licence outcomes without undermining landholder rights.
This topic has not been widely explored to date and offers a fresh perspective on a persistent but emerging barrier in Australia’s energy transition.
