Victoria’s Minister Minister for Energy & Resources, Climate Action and State Electricity Commission, Lily D’Ambrosio has announced that the Victorian Government will enter the renewable energy market in 2027.
The State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SEC) is a newly re-instated government-owned electricity company in my home state, Victoria, Australia.
In the 1990s, energy was privatised in this state and since then, energy companies have been rising prices for consumers, with the Government seemingly having little to no control over these rises.
Their approach is now to compete with a Government-owned energy provider and today’s announcement confirms the SEC will build renewable energy sources, in line with their energy policy to retire legacy coal-fired and gas energy generation.
The SEC (i.e. Victorian tax payers) are investing $370m for the delivery of a massive 119MW solar farm, and 100MW battery with construction to commence straight away.
The Renewable Energy Park is expected to come online in 2027 with enough cheap, renewable electricity to power 51,000 homes which the Government says will driving down electricity prices for all Victorians (read: stop it rising by so much).
While we know the location is Horsham, we don’t yet know who will get the contract to build the solar farm and which manufacturer will supply the grid-scale batteries.
Given there’s a number of other projects using Tesla’s Megapack and Autobidder software, they seem a likely candidate.
Profits will be reinvested back into the SEC to build more renewables – powering Victoria, for Victorians.
