On 26 July 2022 the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) lodged a written notice with the AER disputing the conclusions made in TransGrid's Project Assessment Conclusions Reports (PACR) for:
- Maintaining Reliable Supply to the North West Slopes Area (NWS)
- Maintaining Reliable Supply to the Bathurst, Orange and Parkes Areas (BOP)
PIAG contends TransGrid may have incorrectly applied the regulatory Investment Test for Transmission (RIT-T) in both the NWS PACR and BOP PACR as the scenarios used to assess the cost and market benefits for each credible option are not reasonable or have not been reasonably weighted.
PIAG asserts, the assumptions and inputs relating to:
- network capital costs,
- demand forecasts,
- value of Customer Reliability, and
- discount rates
are outside of what can be assumed with reasonable confidence, materially influencing the relative ranking of options and the basis for any investment compared to taking no action.