Sports

Tasmania Paid $1.79 Million to Exit Macquarie Point Power Deal

Bridie MoloneyPublished 17m ago2 min readBased on 3 sources
Tasmania Paid $1.79 Million to Exit Macquarie Point Power Deal
Image by jeanvdmeulen from Pixabay

The Tasmanian government paid $1,788,236.50 plus GST on 24 June 2026 to exit a power agreement tied to the Macquarie Point site in Hobart. Minister Eric Abetz disclosed the payment in a letter to Tasmanian Greens deputy leader Vica Bayley, as ABC News reported.

The deal was with Veolia. The company had signed an agreement with the Macquarie Point Development Corporation to build a district energy scheme that included a thermal energy plant, a facility to supply heat and power to the precinct. That plant will not go ahead. The government is now looking at other ways to power the site.

The exit payment was not part of the $1.13 billion budget for the Macquarie Point stadium project, according to the same report. Other money has gone out the door as well. Melbourne firm Renewable Intelligence received $667,407 for earlier work on the energy scheme. Property developer Milieu was paid $1.257 million to drop its plans for housing at the Escarpment. Hobart Brewing Company received $1.84 million to end its 10-year lease of The Goods Shed.

The stadium itself is still moving ahead. The government is in final negotiations with BESIX Watpac to build a 23,000-seat venue on the 9.3-hectare site on Hobart's waterfront.

The new power plan is a connection from the North Hobart substation, a local electricity hub, using spare capacity already on the network. The cost of that connection is still being worked out and is not in current estimates.

The numbers do not yet match. TasNetworks, the state's electricity network operator, told the Macquarie Point Development Corporation that the precinct would need 15.7 MVA of power. Abetz gave 9.7 MVA at a budget estimates committee hearing. MVA, or megavolt-amperes, is the unit used to measure how much electrical capacity a site needs.

The government's written response on the stadium estimates an average operational return of $2 million a year over ten years. Treasury's 2025-26 Preliminary Outcomes Report records $18.6 million for the Macquarie Point Urban Redevelopment.

The gap between 9.7 and 15.7 MVA is the figure to watch. It will shape the connection cost, and that cost is still to be finalised.

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