Bringing back the SEC was a key plank in Daniel Andrews’ third consecutive election win.Credit:Jason South
The government has provided little detail about how the SEC will bring down energy prices,except for pointing out that more renewable generation will increase supply in the market and lower wholesale costs.
But it did make an early commitment to kick off the SEC’s revival witha “pioneer investment” of $1 billion that would go towards generating 4.5 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2035. That is enough to replaceLoy Yang A, the state’s largest power station that is expected to progressively shut down between 2028 and 2030.
The government intends to use its balance sheet to buy a major share in new projects that could eventually see the state collect some revenue from selling electricity to the National Energy Market. Proceeds from this process could then be reinvested into local projects.
In figures provided to The Sunday Age,the Andrews government confirmed it had received more than 100 registrations from projects interested in the state’s $1 billion investment.
The closure of coal power plants is straining the electricity grid.Credit:The Age
A significant share of these are battery projects – with more than 30 gigawatts of storage capacity represented across all applications.
Another 24 gigawatts of generation projects have shown interest in the scheme,including wind,solar and “emerging technologies” that were not detailed.