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Asset classes
- Transmission Line80,968
- Power Plant32,429
- Substation / Converter7,614
- Oil & Gas Field7,055
- Coal / Uranium Mine5,382
- Pipeline4,951
- Cement Plant3,513
- Data Centre3,283
- Iron & Steel Plant1,293
- LNG Terminal1,198
- Grid Storage965
- Iron Ore Mine949
- Chemical Plant868
- Interconnector704
- Export Terminal519
- Refinery279
- Storage / Tank Farm38
- Oil / Commodity Contract19
- Hydrogen Project18
- Carbon Capture (CCS)16
Chokepoints
Australia · electricity network
Australia power grid
OverWatts maps 24,400 km of Australia's electricity transmission network across 3,687 line segments and 97 substations, the 14th most-mapped grid of 153 countries. Its backbone is high voltage (220–379 kV), carrying 22,700 km — 93% of the mapped length, with the highest tagged voltage at 500 kV. That works out to 3.2 km per 1,000 km² of land — sparse OpenStreetMap coverage, ahead of 12% of mapped countries.
OpenStreetMap coverage
This grades how completely OpenStreetMap has drawn Australia's network — not how much network exists. Large, sparsely-populated countries score low for geographic reasons alone, and every kilometre here is mapped length, so the totals are a floor rather than an operator-reported figure. 6% of segments carry a real line name and 14% an operator tag.
Mapped line length by voltage
- 380–764 kV1,720 km 7%
- 220–379 kV22,700 km 93%
3,687 segments · a segment is credited to the country containing its midpoint, so a border-crossing line counts once, on one side.
On the interactive map
Load against the network
Where there is room to connect a new load depends on published hosting capacity, which most operators release only as their own map. OverWatts does not yet ingest those feeds, so these are the density measures the open data supports — generation and mapped demand against mapped network — not a headroom figure.
Operators tagged on Australia's network
- Powerlink277 55%
- TransGrid165 33%
- Electranet35 7%
- AusNet12 2%
- Neoen5 1%
- BHP3 1%
- TrustPower3 1%
- Ergon Energy2 0%
Segment counts from OSM `operator` tags, merged across spellings. Present on 14% of segments — this ranks who is recorded, not market share.
How Australia compares · mapped grid by country
- 1. People's Republic of China624,300 km
- 12. Spain29,800 km
- 13. Saudi Arabia27,300 km
- 14. Australia24,400 km
- 15. Turkey23,900 km
- 16. Algeria20,700 km
Frequently asked
- How big is Australia's transmission network?
- OverWatts maps 24,400 km of transmission line in Australia, across 3,687 segments, plus 97 substations. This is mapped length from OpenStreetMap, not an operator-reported total — where OSM is incomplete the figure is a floor, never a ceiling.
- What voltage is Australia's grid?
- Most of the mapped network is high voltage (220–379 kV): 22,700 km of 24,400 km. The highest voltage tagged anywhere in the country is 500 kV.
- How complete is the grid map for Australia?
- Sparse — 3.2 km of mapped line per 1,000 km² of land, ahead of 12% of the 153 countries with any mapped grid. Coverage grades how completely OpenStreetMap has drawn the network, not how much network exists; large, sparsely-populated countries score low for geographic reasons alone.
- Who operates the grid in Australia?
- Powerlink, TransGrid, Electranet and 5 others are tagged as operators on mapped segments. Operator tags are present on 14% of Australia's segments, so this ranks who is *recorded*, not market share.
Elsewhere in Australia
Network geometry: OpenStreetMap (ODbL) © OpenStreetMap contributors, ingested and measured by OverWatts · derived 2026-07-26. Counts every mapped line of 220 kV and above; the map layer draws the ≥380 kV backbone only, so it shows less than is measured here.