The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has stood by its decision to be absent from a meeting in Western Victoria, where residents and farmers protested power lines being built on local farms.
The meeting came after a convoy of tractors and utes rolled into the streets of St Arnaud on Monday to fight against the VNI-West transmission line project, which would see 500-kilovolt overhead transmission line being built to connect the Western Renewables Link at Bulgana to New South Wales near Echuca.
More than 300 residents, including farmers furious about powerlines being built over their properties, gathered in the town hall, but AEMO refused to attend….