THE article (JT, February 5) headed "Power line will destroy livelihood says couple" highlights one of many negative impacts the Energex proposed second Loganlea to Jimboomba 110kV power line will have on residents and small businesses in our community.
Over the last five years we've repeatedly asked Energex and government representatives why they need to build this high impact, duplicate powerline?
We've been told it's needed to deliver reliability. But how can it when 29 poles are to be located in the Logan River flood hazard zone?
We know as recently as January 2013, when the Logan River floods Energex crews cannot get in to restore local distribution services for many days and certainly won't be able to get near this high voltage powerline, when it inevitably fails.
We've also been told this is the least cost option. But the current cost estimate for this powerline is $50 million +/-15 per cent, which is double the cost submitted to the Australian Energy Regulator for approval in 2009.
As well, the Geotech survey needed to determine the feasibility, amount of concrete and costs to mount the poles in the Logan River, has not been done.
So we expect the overall cost for this powerline will continue to rise.
We know there are lower cost and lower impact alternatives, including a local Powerlink substation, which could be built for $10 million less. And be located away from flood zones to actually deliver reliability and more than twice the capacity of the proposed powerline, which is needed to support planned growth.
We also know that with electricity demand and peak load falling, there is still time to properly review and implement alternatives.
However, we realise cost is not an issue for Energex, as they earn a regulated (guaranteed) 9.72 per cent return on assets and pass their costs through to our electricity bills.
In fact Energex costs make up almost half of our bills and over-building of "poles and wires" is reported as the main reason our electricity costs have doubled since 2007.
Dividends and other receipts to our state government from their monopoly network providers (Energex, Ergon and Powerlink) have also risen from $47 million in 2007-08 to over a billion dollars in 2012-13.
This is effectively a tax by stealth collected by Energy Minister McArdle, while he and his cronies try to blame our electricity price increases on the carbon tax, when it's about 10 per cent of our bill and decreasing.
The second powerline is not about delivering reliability. Instead it will impose a liability, with long term impacts on our community.
We need to remind our state MPs that prior to being elected they said they would call for a full review of alternatives.
This review is still needed if the many impacts of this powerline are to be avoided leading up to the next state election in 2015.
Paul Casbolt
VETO.org.au