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AAP
AAP
Business
Rachael Ward

Landowners paid for energy infrastructure

Residents living in the path of several projects in regional Victoria will receive compensation. (Dean Lewins/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

Landowners with electricity infrastructure imposed on their properties will be paid $200,000 per square kilometre over 25 years.

Residents living in the path of several projects in regional Victoria have previously protested high-voltage power lines and towers being built on the properties.

The projects are part of a wider move to shift the state to renewable energy as remaining coal-fired power stations are set close over the next 12 years.

The first residents to receive payments will be those impacted by VNI West, likely connecting Ballarat in central Victoria with Kerang in the north and across to NSW, and the Western Renewables Link corridor running from the Melbourne suburb of Sydenham to Stawell in Western Victoria.

The standard payments will be $8,000 a year for 25 years for those with transmission easements on their land.

In 2022 protests against VNI West stepped up, with hundreds of farmers driving tractors through Ballarat and another rally held outside Parliament House in Melbourne.

They are concerned about the impact of high-voltage powerlines running across their land about 80 metres above ground and are calling for infrastructure to be placed underground instead.

People living in Gippsland impacted by the Victoria-Tasmania Marinus Link project and those near future offshore wind projects can also receive payments.

The projects are part of a move to guarantee energy stability across the east coast, with power generated in Victoria and NSW able to be transferred between states.

"These new payments acknowledge the hugely important role landholders play in hosting critical energy infrastructure - a key part of Victoria's renewables revolution," Victoria's Energy and Resources Minister Lily D'Ambrosio said.

"We want to get the process for planning and approving new infrastructure right, so we can make sure the renewables revolution is a shared, equitable legacy for all Victorians."

The Australian Energy Market Operator earlier this week warned the reliability of the grid would be in doubt over the next decade without urgent investments to replace coal plants.

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