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50-566: The State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SEC, SECV or ECV) is a government-owned electricity company in Victoria, Australia . Originally established to generate electricity from the state's reserves of brown coal , the SEC gradually monopolised most aspects of the Victorian electricity industry, before being broken up and largely privatised in the 1990s. After several decades of dormancy, it

100-412: A 51% shareholding in renewable energy projects funded by the new State Electricity Commission. Andrews committed to amending the state’s constitution to protect public ownership of the revived SEC if re-elected, to make it harder, although not impossible, for it to be privatised again in the future. Re-privatising the commission after such legislation would require a " special majority " of 60% of both

150-535: A great deal of private investment. The success in Nicaragua may not be an easily replicated situation however. The movement was known as Energiewende and it is generally considered a failure for many reasons. A primary reason was that it was improperly timed and was proposed during a period in which their energy economy was under more competition. Globally, the transition of electric utilities to renewables remains slow, hindered by concurrent continued investment in

200-606: A mandate in the Victorian Constitution for the new SEC to act as a renewable energy provider, and restrict its abolition or privatisation without a special majority of the Parliament. When electricity generation first became practical, the main uses were lighting of public buildings, street lighting and later, electric trams . As a result, electricity generation and distribution tended to be carried out by municipalities, by private companies under franchise to

250-569: A much-diminished state-owned entity, run by an executive committee. It held indentures for debts owed to it by brown coal gasification company, HRL Limited, and remained the electricity supplier for the Portland aluminium smelter , under the name Vicpower Trading. It was also the electricity supplier to the Point Henry aluminium smelter , although that facility was closed in July 2016. Currently,

300-488: A reduction in the dependence on black coal by the 1950s. By the 1960s the trend towards more efficient large capacity equipment continued, with additional generators of 120 MW capacity installed at Yallourn, and the Hazelwood Power Station with eight 200 MW units commissioned along with a new open cut mine and briquette factory. The Hazelwood mine was not as successful as planned as Morwell coal

350-618: A wholesale supplier to other municipal distributors. The main privately owned company was the Melbourne Electric Supply Company which was established in 1899 and operated under 30-year franchise arrangement with a number of other municipal distributors. The company operated the Richmond and Geelong power stations. The final major generator of electricity was the Victorian Railways which operated

400-858: Is also more likely to attract executives experienced in working in competitive environments. In the United States, the Energy Policy Act of 1992 removed previous barriers to wholesale competition in the electric utility industry. Currently 24 states allow for deregulated electric utilities: Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Washington D.C. As electric utility monopolies have been increasingly broken up into deregulated businesses, executive compensation has risen; particularly incentive compensation. Oversight

450-482: Is inherently independent of more traditional sources of energy, the market seems to have a very different structure. In the United States, to promote the production and development of alternative energies, there are many subsidies, rewards, and incentives that encourage companies to take up the challenge themselves. There is precedent for such a system working in countries like Nicaragua. In 2005, Nicaragua gave renewable energy companies tax and duty exemptions, which spurred

500-522: Is responsible for a geographic region of Victoria. In the lead-up to the 2022 Victorian state election , Premier Daniel Andrews committed to reviving the State Electricity Commission (SEC) if re-elected. The new state-owned entity would invest directly in renewable energy and electricity storage projects, in order to reach the state's target of 95% renewable energy by 2035 and net zero emissions by 2045. The government would have

550-458: Is typically carried out at the national level, however it varies depending on financial support and external influences. There is no existence of any influential international energy oversight organization. There does exist a World Energy Council, but its mission is mostly to advise and share new information. It does not hold any kind of legislative or executive power. Alternative energy has become more and more prevalent in recent times and as it

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600-502: The 2022 state election campaign, the Victorian Labor Party led by Daniel Andrews pledged to revive the SEC as a participant in the deregulated National Electricity Market . Following Labor's victory at the election, an initial $ 1 billion investment was allocated in the 2023–24 state budget to new state-owned company SEC Victoria . A series of legislative reforms introduced in late 2023 will, if successful, entrench

650-773: The Electricity Commissioners Act 1918 and took over administration of the Electric Light and Power Act from the Public Works Department. The Electricity Commissioners became the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) on 10 January 1921 under the State Electricity Commission Act 1920 . Sir John Monash was both chairman and general manager and Harper was the first chief engineer, retiring in 1936. The first capital works to be carried out by

700-584: The Essential Services Commission of Victoria is responsible for the regulation of retail electricity distributors, and the Australian Energy Regulator is responsible for regulating distribution, transmission and the wholesale electricity market. After privatisation, the retail electricity distribution companies were: As at March 2020, the current electricity distributors for Victorians are: Each distributor

750-775: The Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council , a situation which already exists for any potential privatisation of water services in Victoria under the Constitution of Victoria . In the 2023/24 Victorian state budget, the government allocated $ 1 billion to the SEC to invest in renewable energy and storage. This investment had the goal of creating 4.5 gigawatts of renewable energy in Victoria. The SEC set up offices in Morwell and Melbourne, appointed an interim CEO, and established an expert advisory board to guide

800-541: The Melbourne Electric Supply Company was acquired along with their street tramway operations in Geelong , followed by Electric Supply Company of Victoria in 1934 - similarly with their tram systems in Ballarat and Bendigo . Despite these acquisitions, municipal controlled distribution companies known as Municipal Electricity Undertakings (MEUs) in the inner urban areas of Melbourne remained outside of SECV control until

850-676: The Newport Power Station , for the supply of electricity to Melbourne's suburban trains . These early generators all relied on a fuel supply provided by the strike prone black coal industry of New South Wales. Victoria has large reserves of brown coal located in the Latrobe Valley , to the east of Melbourne. Brown coal has a low energy density due to the high moisture content and would have been uneconomic to transport to Melbourne. However, advances in electrical transmission technology allowed electricity to be generated near

900-475: The French company EDF was the world's largest producer of electricity. An electric power system is a group of generation, transmission, distribution, communication, and other facilities that are physically connected. The flow of electricity within the system is maintained and controlled by dispatch centers which can buy and sell electricity based on system requirements. The executive compensation received by

950-796: The Rennoldson Electrical Engineering Company, a Tyneside engineering firm located in South Shields , gaining experience in marine engineering. He was engaged in England to Eva Beatrice Ellis, whom he married at St Alban's Church, Armadale in Melbourne on 11 January 1902 and had four children. He died at Toorak on 27 July 1956. In 1893 he began work at the Brush Electrical Engineering Company and in 1895 he supervised

1000-570: The SEC's approach to the energy market. One member of the advisory board, Alan Finkel , left the role in June 2023. The revived SEC launched an expression of interest process for its first round of renewable energy investments. In September 2023 local media reported that there were more than 100 registrations of interest for projects in Victoria, with the proposals making up 30 gigawatts of energy storage and 24 gigawatts of new renewable energy. The new renewable energy, alongside existing private investment,

1050-453: The SECV the authority to decide whether rival organisations could be set up in competition to it, as well as the authority to take over existing private companies when their franchises expired. By 1953 the SECV acquired control of the following undertakings when their franchises expired: The SECV also took over a number of small municipal electricity distributors during the 1920s, and in the 1930

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1100-631: The SECV was the development of the 50 MW Yallourn Power Station , briquette factory, and open-cut brown coal mine in the Latrobe Valley. The SECV was allocated $ 2.86 million for the Yallourn works, which had been recommended in 1917. Transmission of electricity to Melbourne began in 1924, a distance of 160 km using a 132 kV line. The SECV moved to 220 kV transmission in 1956 and 500 kV in 1970. The SECV built Newport 'B' Power Station in 1923 to supply electricity to Melbourne until

1150-691: The Victorian Government and to service greater debt levels from the heavy expansion. The SECV was also a part to the Portland Smelter Contract , which provided the Alcoa aluminium smelter with favourable electricity prices at the expense of other consumers. In December 1992, during the construction of the Loy Yang B power station, the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) sold a 51 per cent interest in Loy Yang B to

1200-547: The Yallourn power station entered service. Newport 'B' was fuelled by imported black coal and Yallourn briquettes. Work on hydroelectric power commenced in 1922 on the Rubicon Hydroelectric Scheme to the north-east of Melbourne. For the first ten years of its operation it supplied on average 16.9% of electricity generated by the SECV. The Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme was approved in 1937, but World War II delayed its progress. The legislation also gave

1250-413: The common coal mine. The project was hit by cost overruns, with an independent review initiated by the government in late 1982, finding excessive rates of pay for construction and operation staff, poor project management, over investment in both the coal mine and power station and general overmanning. Electricity costs to consumers also begun to rise in the 1980s, due to the need to pay greater dividends to

1300-414: The companies themselves cutting corners and costs for profits which has proven to be disastrous in the worst-case scenarios. This placed a strain on many other countries as many foreign governments felt pressured to close nuclear power plants in response to public concerns. Nuclear energy however still holds a major part in many communities around the world. Utilities have found that it isn't simple to meet

1350-491: The councils, or by joint private-public bodies. Prior to the establishment of SECV, electricity was generated and distributed by a number of private and municipal generator and distribution companies. The main municipal-owned power station in Victoria was opened in 1892 by the Melbourne City Council , which generated electricity from its Spencer Street Power Station for the city's residents, as well as being

1400-443: The electricity industry. By the 1970s, the SEC held a virtual monopoly over the entire Victorian electricity system. Beginning in the early 1990s, the SEC's businesses and assets were broken up and privatised , while its regulatory functions were taken over by other government agencies. A shell entity remained to administer residual assets and liabilities, and to manage a small number of government-subsidised power contracts. During

1450-523: The electricity supply. Country interests argued that this was unfair to rural consumers, and in June 1928 a conference of rural and regional councils demanded the government equalise tariffs, but this was rejected by the Labor Government. Equalisation of tariffs was not brought in until 1965, and it was due to the SECV itself rather than a response to political pressures. During World War II construction and maintenance work had delayed, and after

1500-464: The establishment of an Electricity Commission to develop the brown coal reserves, construct a power station and transmission lines. In December 1918, Parliament passed a bill to establish a Commission with both regulatory and investigative powers, including taking over the enforcement of the existing Electric Light and Power Act , which regulated all electricity generators and distributors. The Victorian Electricity Commissioners were created in 1919 under

1550-777: The executives in utility companies often receives the most scrutiny in the review of operating expenses . Just as regulated utilities and their governing bodies struggle to maintain a balance between keeping consumer costs reasonable and being profitable enough to attract investors, they must also compete with private companies for talented executives and then be able to retain those executives. Regulated companies are less likely to use incentive-based remuneration in addition to base salaries. Executives in regulated electric utilities are less likely to be paid for their performance in bonuses or stock options . They are less likely to approve compensation policies that include incentive-based pay. The compensation for electric utility executives will be

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1600-490: The expansion of fossil fuel capacity. Nuclear energy may be classified as a green source depending on the country. Although there used to be much more privatization in this energy sector, after the 2011 Fukushima district nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, there has been a move away from nuclear energy itself, especially for privately owned nuclear power plants. The criticism being that privatization of companies tend to have

1650-433: The first major SECV project that met widespread opposition from the general public. It was not opened until the 1980s and with only half the proposed capacity. In the 1980s work on a third open cut commenced at Loy Yang, as the Yallourn and Morwell coal fields were both committed to fuel existing power stations. The plan was for two new stations ( Loy Yang A and B ) consisting all a total of eight 500 MW units, all fed by

1700-919: The fuel source and transmitted to the consumer. Following an overseas tour in 1911, Herbert Reah Harper , engineer with the Melbourne City Council Electricity Supply Department, recognised the potential for Victorian brown coal, after seeing Germany's use, and recommended the establishment of a public utility on the lines of the Ontario Hydro Electricity. He was subsequently appointed to the Victorian Government Brown Coal Advisory Committee (chaired by Department of Mines director Hyman Herman ), which reported in September 1917. It recommended

1750-674: The installation of electric supply in Malta for that firm, staying on as chief engineer for the power authority. On return to England he supervised a number of tramway and town lighting systems. In 1889 he was sent to Melbourne as assistant to F. W. Clements, to manage the Brush Electrical Engineering Co subsidiary Electric Light and Traction Co. Harper became electrical engineer to the Melbourne City Council in 1901 (replacing Arthur Arnot), where he

1800-679: The lowest in regulated utilities that have an unfavorable regulatory environment. These companies have more political constraints than those in a favorable regulatory environment and are less likely to have a positive response to requests for rate increases. Just as increased constraints from regulation drive compensation down for executives in electric utilities, deregulation has been shown to increase remuneration. The need to encourage risk-taking behavior in seeking new investment opportunities while keeping costs under control requires deregulated companies to offer performance-based incentives to their executives. It has been found that increased compensation

1850-475: The private companies that operated a power station for distribution in its area. The private companies also operated their own distribution and retail networks in other areas of Melbourne, and in one case they also operated some of Melbourne's first electric tramways (in Essendon). Electricity pricing was set by the SECV, which set different tariffs for towns of different size, dependent on the costs of providing

1900-663: The private sector operator, Mission Energy Australia Pty Ltd. In 1994, the Kennett government privatised the SECV, which led to the SECV being broken down into five distribution and retail companies (absorbing the MEUs in the process), five generation companies, and a transmission company. Along with other state-owned utilities (such as the Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria ), these businesses were all corporatised, then privatised between 1995 and 1999. The State Government retained ownership of

1950-411: The privatisation of the industry in the 1990s. The eleven municipalities which had MEUs were: Melbourne (established 1897), Footscray (1910), Brunswick (1912), Box Hill (1912), Port Melbourne (1912), Preston (1912), Northcote (1913), Heidelberg (1914), Coburg (1914), Doncaster & Templestowe (1914) and Williamstown (1915). The other councils purchased electricity in bulk from one of

2000-581: The renewables workforce in Victoria, establishing SEC Centre of Training Excellence to train 6,000 traineeships and apprenticeships. The plan said that the revived SEC would operate as a state-owned company, SEC Victoria Pty Ltd, led by a CEO and board of directors registered under the Commonwealth Corporations Act 2001 . Simon Corbell , a former deputy chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory ,

2050-534: The unique needs of individual customers, whether residential, corporate, industrial, government, military, or otherwise. Customers in the twenty-first century have new and urgent expectations that demand a transformation of the electric grid. They want a system that gives them new tools, better data to help manage energy usage, advanced protections against cyberattacks, and a system that minimizes outage times and quickens power restoration. Herbert Reah Harper Herbert Reah Harper (23 June 1871 – 27 July 1956 )

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2100-524: The war the SECV had difficulty with keeping up with increasing electricity demand. Existing thermal power stations were expanded at Yallourn and Newport, with much bigger generators of 50 MW capacity used, much larger than the 15-25 MW units used pre-war. The hydroelectric resources at Eildon and Kiewa also saw continued development. The Richmond Power Station was also converted to oil firing, and smaller 'prefabricated' power stations were erected in Geelong and Ballarat. These additions resulted in

2150-563: The wholesale market operator Victorian Power Exchange (VPX), which was subsequently reorganised with its market and system operation functions being transferred to the National Electricity Market Management Company (NEMMCO) and its transmission planning functions being transferred to VENCorp (now Australian Energy Markets Operator—AEMO). Other than electricity generation, the State Electricity Commission of Victoria also: The SECV continued as

2200-479: The world. Expansion in the Latrobe Valley continued through the 1970s with the Yallourn W plant replacing the older units and delivering much greater reliability with Japanese and German technology, compared to the previously utilised equipment from the UK. A new gas fuelled power station was also proposed in the early 1970s for Newport to replace existing plant, but met considerable opposition from nearby residents becoming

2250-640: Was a British born, Australian electrical engineer who played an important role in the development of first the Melbourne electric supply and then the State Electricity Commission of Victoria . Harper was born in London on 23 June 1871 to parents James Harper, a commercial traveller and Hannah, née Reah. Harper attended Dulwich College and studied engineering at the City and Guilds Technical College , Finsbury, then took up an apprenticeship at

2300-705: Was appointed chairman of the SEC board in April 2024. Electricity company Electric utilities include investor owned , publicly owned , cooperatives , and nationalized entities. They may be engaged in all or only some aspects of the industry. Electricity markets are also considered electric utilities—these entities buy and sell electricity, acting as brokers, but usually do not own or operate generation, transmission, or distribution facilities. Utilities are regulated by local and national authorities. Electric utilities are facing increasing demands including aging infrastructure , reliability, and regulation. In 2009,

2350-500: Was involved in the expansion of the generation and distribution system including introducing three-phase transmission and a new generator at Spencer Street Power Station. Harper was correspondent to the London Institution of Electrical Engineers and American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and following an overseas tour in 1911, recognised the potential for Victorian brown coal, after seeing Germany's use. He recommended

2400-550: Was planned to facilitate the shutting down of the state's largest coal plant, Loy Yang A , between 2028 and 2030. The government planned to announce a 10-year plan for the SEC by the end of 2023. New premier Jacinta Allan announced the organisation's 10-year plan in October 2023. Allan announced that the SEC would operate as an energy retailer, initially to industrial and commercial customers. The SEC would also focus on piloting and supporting household electrification, and building up

2450-537: Was revived in 2023 to invest in renewable energy and storage markets. A 1918 act of the Victorian Parliament appointed a board of Electricity Commissioners to investigate the feasibility of exploiting the substantial brown coal deposits in the Latrobe Valley . The Commissioners, soon renamed the SEC, constructed the first of many power stations at Yallourn , entered the distribution and retailing businesses, and gained regulatory powers over

2500-417: Was unsuitable for making briquettes, resulting in coal needing to be railed from the Yallourn mine. By the end of the decade brown coal was used to generate 90 per cent of Victoria's electricity supply, with all of the coal sourced from open cut mines under SECV control. As a result, the SECV was not forced to raise power costs during the 1970s oil price shocks, in contrast to other electricity suppliers around

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