Strathbogie Shire Council has called on the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) to urgently reconsider its draft determination which currently excludes two critical infrastructure projects from AusNet’s 2026-31 regulatory proposal. The proposed express feeder BN11 from Benalla to Euroa and upgrade works on SM11 from Seymour to Nagambie are currently determined by AER to be excluded from the proposal. Strathbogie Shire Mayor Scott Jeffery said these projects were essential to improve power reliability across the region and support future residential and industrial growth in Euroa and Nagambie. "Our residents and businesses continue to suffer from sustained and unacceptable power outages,” Cr Jeffery said. "These upgrades are essential to ensure reliability and unlock the growth potential of our towns. "We are advocating strongly to federal and state ministers, and directly to the AER, to ensure these projects are reconsidered in the final determination, which is due in the new year." Cr Jeffery said council had the support of independent federal member for Indi Helen Haines and state member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland. Electricity distributors need to seek AER approval for prudency and efficiency every five years for planned capital infrastructure works for the following five-year term. AusNet included BN11 and SM11 in its most recent submission but the AER rejected the plans in a draft determination and said demand-driven augmentation did not meet a required threshold and that the benefit-cost ratio, based on the value of customer reliability, did not ‘stack up’ against other projects. Cr Jeffery said the status quo was inconsistent with the lived experience of the community and the strategic importance of the upgrades. “Nagambie is identified in Plan for Victoria as a major employment and industrial precinct area, but without reliable and adequate power supply the ability to achieve growth is significantly constrained,” he said. “Therefore, we are going to continue to advocate for the inclusion of BN11 and SM11 in the final AER determination.” Cr Jeffery said council had been working with AusNet to ensure the two essential projects were prioritised. A spokesperson for AER said that regional communities had expressed support for network reliability and safety initiatives, including supporting the transitions to renewable energy sources and that the regulator approved the maximum revenue that network energy providers, such as AusNet, propose to recover from consumers over a five-year period. “Our role is to ensure that consumers pay no more than necessary for the solutions,” the spokesperson said. “The AER aims to ensure (affordability) for safe and reliable energy while supporting the transitioning energy market. “AusNet’s revenue proposal for the 2026-31 regulatory period was based on expenditure across a range of areas, including reliability, safety, and resilience. “In the AER’s draft decision, we found several areas where AusNet had not included sufficient information or rigorous business cases to support such expenditure.” AER has asked AusNet to explore more efficient options to address reliability issues and the timing of its proposed investments and to undertake further analysis to identify the root causes of outages. AER will consider AusNet’s revised proposal and all other submissions before making its final decision in April 2026. Cr Jeffery said recent industry forums held with the thoroughbred, viticulture, agriculture, transport and construction, and health businesses across the shire all raised the common theme of the impact infrastructure reliability on the viability of their businesses. Cr Jeffery said Nagambie and the shire were now in a 'catch-22' situation. “Until we grow, we’re not going to qualify; but we can’t grow without these upgrades. “Our communities are telling us very clearly that sustained power supply outages have a significant impact on households, businesses, and organisations, and lead to severe hardship for residents. “Many farms and homes rely on electricity to pump water for homes and livestock, and the loss of the mobile network poses a significant risk in emergencies, the loss of heating and cooling poses a risk to life, the loss of EFTPOS machines impacts businesses, fuel becomes unavailable, and electric vehicles can’t be charged. “Electricity is an essential service – not a luxury.” AusNet’s revised proposal has been submitted, but other stakeholders can make submissions to AER on the current draft decision by 19 January 2026. Submissions should be sent to Vic2026@aer.gov.au Strathbogie's energy issue The northeastern side of Strathbogie Shire has its energy supplied from Benalla and the southwestern side is supplied from Seymour. Both supply lines are operated by AusNet and are single lines of supply. Energy for Graytown is provided of Powercor. Fire prevention legislation after the Black Saturday fires in 2009 has resulted in the shire’s energy becoming more unreliable. The introduction of Rapid Earth Fault Current Limiters (REFCL) in Benalla, Euroa, and Violet Town accounted for approximately 17 outages, including nine sustained widespread outages, in the first six months of their installation. According to AusNet, the BN11 feeder, which serves around 4800 customers, has experienced 76 unplanned sustained outages in 2025. On average, a customer on BN11 has experienced seven outages during that time. AusNet said in a statement that outages would impact customers differently due to some affecting a whole feeder (a feeder trip) and some impacting smaller areas which could be downstream from a switch or a set of fuses on a section of line that has a smaller number of customers. Communities impacted significantly by these outages have long called on local politicians and AusNet to find solutions and a mechanism for a more reliable power supply.
