What the scheme is
EnergyCo describes it in one line:
The Strategic Benefit Payments (SBP) Scheme ensures eligible landholders share in the
benefits of this significant economic investment
.
The sentence that matters most to anyone weighing an offer is the next one, because it
answers the obvious suspicion. These payments
are made in addition to and will not reduce any compensation paid to landholders for
transmission easements as required under the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act
1991
.
So it is not the easement money renamed. Easement compensation is a separate statutory entitlement, and the strategic benefit payment sits on top of it.
The rate, and how long it runs
| Element | What the scheme says |
|---|---|
| Rate | The equivalent of $200,000 in 2022 dollars, per kilometre of eligible transmission hosted |
| Term | Annual instalments over 20 years, indexed to CPI |
| First payment | Within 90 days after the infrastructure is energised |
| Later payments | By 30 September each year |
| Paid by | The network operator, not EnergyCo |
In EnergyCo’s words, eligible landholders
will receive the equivalent of $200,000 in 2022 dollars, per kilometre of eligible
transmission infrastructure hosted on their property
, and
Payments are paid in annual instalments over 20 years, adjusted annually for inflation using
the Consumer Price Index
. The clock starts at energisation:
The first payment will be paid within 90 days after the eligible infrastructure is
energised
.
Note the base year. The figure is expressed in 2022 dollars and indexed from there, so the amount actually paid in any given year is higher than the headline number and rises with CPI. We have quoted it as the scheme states it rather than converting, because a converted figure would be out of date the moment inflation moved.
Who counts as eligible
EnergyCo sets it out as two conditions rather than one sentence. You must be
a private landholder
, and hosting a permanent easement on your property, for
eligible infrastructure
. Ownership can be freehold, a perpetual lease, native title or an
Aboriginal land right.
Public authorities are not eligible
, with an exception worth knowing: EnergyCo states
that Local Aboriginal Land Councils and Registered Native Title Bodies Corporate are eligible,
because they are not considered public authorities.
How the kilometres are counted
The detail here decides real money, and three rules do most of the work.
Payments are calculated based on the length of the approximate centreline of the
transmission line
. If the centreline does not cross your land, the measure is the length of
the edge of the permanent easement instead. Host two separate sets of lines and you are paid for
each.
There is a floor:
If the transmission line on your property is less than 100 metres long, it will be rounded
up to 100 metres when calculating your payment
. A short clip of a corner still pays.
And there is a penalty for the operator paying late:
Late payments by network operators accrue interest compounded daily at an annual rate of 4%
plus the most recent cash rate
. That is unusually specific, and it is the sort of clause
worth knowing exists before chasing a payment that has not arrived.
Where a property has multiple owners, tenants in common are paid according to their ownership share and joint tenants receive one payment jointly.
The Hunter projects on the list
Eligibility is not automatic for every wire. EnergyCo says the eligible infrastructure declared to date includes high-voltage transmission lines from named major projects, and the Hunter Transmission Project is among them, alongside the Central-West Orana REZ transmission project, the New England REZ network infrastructure project, Project EnergyConnect, HumeLink and the Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector West.
That matters locally because the Hunter Transmission Project is the one actionable rung on this region’s transmission ladder, a 110 km 500 kV line, and the approvals are moving. The landholders along that route are inside a declared scheme, not negotiating from scratch.
The thing you actually have to do
One administrative catch is worth the whole page. The payment is not automatic once you are
eligible: EnergyCo says
the network operator will provide you with a Payment Direction form to complete and submit
each year
. Each year, not once. Keep contact details current with the operator, and tell
them about anything that changes eligibility, such as selling the property.
How we made this
Every quoted passage is verbatim from EnergyCo’s Strategic Benefit Payments Scheme page, read on 24 August 2026. We have quoted the rate, the term, the eligibility test and the calculation rules rather than paraphrasing them, because each one decides an amount.
This is general information about a published scheme, not legal or financial advice, and it is not a substitute for the SBP Guidelines themselves, which EnergyCo names as the governing document and which we have not read. Appendix A of those Guidelines carries the full list of eligible projects and the Minister may update it, so confirm current eligibility for a specific project before relying on it. We have not read the guidelines, the easement compensation process under the Just Terms Act, or any individual agreement, and we have not spoken to EnergyCo, any network operator or any landholder.