Power line firm hails NAIF move

A COMPANY looking to access federal funding for a $ 600 million transmission line project in North Queensland has welcomed plans to provide more flexibility in the financing criteria of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.

CuString Pty Ltd wants to develop a 500km transmission line between Hughenden and Mount Isa to link the North West Minerals Province with the national electricity grid.

The company is preparing an application to NAIF and met facility board directors and executives in Mount Isa this week.

CuString founder John O’Brien said the project was ideal for NAIF financing.

“The widening NAIF mandate is positive and the greater flexibility in NAIF’s ( funding) criteria is welcomed by CuString,” Mr O’Brien said.

“The ability of NAIF to pro- vide more than the 50 per cent cap on debt funding will be advantageous for the common user, energy infrastructure represented by the CuString development.

Mr O’Brien said there was a strong alignment between infrastructure that improved the economics of power supply across the Townsville to Mount Isa corridor and NAIF’s objectives.

“It doesn’t get any more NAIF than CuString 2.0. Our transmission line is a major piece of common- user infrastructure linking arguably Queensland’s most valuable supply chain with world- class renewable energy and traditional energy resources,” Mr O’Brien said.

He said the CuString project would provide macroeconomic benefits by linking and sharing the electricity resources and demand of the NWMP and Queensland’s east coast grid.

It was also well placed to integrate NAIF finance into the project given the depth of investigation undertaken over the past decade.

“Through effective collaboration, NAIF and CuString can deliver lower- cost, loweremissions long- term energy supply to the NWMP and facilitate an enormous increase in clean energy investment between Townsville and Mount Isa,” Mr O’Brien said.

He said CuString was the prime example of using infrastructure to boost productivity.

“Working closely with a government agency is a natural fit for such a large- scale piece of shared infrastructure,” Mr O’Brien said.