The state’s energy assets should be placed back into a majority public ownership instead of leaving supply security and transition up to the “mythical concept of the market”, according to Trades Hall.
Victorian Trades Hall Council transition officer Colin Long was speaking about the need to renationalise the state’s electricity system at the Gippsland New Energy Conference in Sale recently.
Mr Long pointed to the failures in the system that led to the energy crisis earlier this year in which the Australian Energy Market Operator was forced to intervene to keep the nation’s lights on.
He blamed the crisis on “fragmented, privatised and for-profit” ownership that supplies essential services through an “entirely artificial market” and a regime that “incentivises poor behaviour”.
He said this system had no provision for transition mechanisms, no consideration for state and federal emissions reductions and ignored broader economic values.
“While it has been a key aspiration of progressive governments to reduce electricity prices through increased use of renewables, current ownership and market rules work against this objective,” Mr Long said.
“The crisis also shows that the existing system of private ownership of renewable energy bidding into an energy market won’t deliver the transition to cheaper renewables that the Victorian government is seeking.”
Mr Long pointed to added pressures, including ageing coal plants and the war in Ukraine, which was causing the international energy market to remain “convulsed”.
He said instead, power should be provided for the public good, including ensuring a just transition, reliable and affordable power, a local workforce, local procurement and secure employment.
“The quickest way to secure public control and ensure that all public interests tests are met is through at least majority public ownership of generation and transmission assets,” Mr Long said.
“This would ensure that the investment the Victorian government proposes to make with the funding of target results in benefits to flow back to the government and public.”
Mr Long cited the 60 per cent publicly-owned CleanCo in Queensland, established to help the state transition to renewables, as well as publicly-owned offshore wind in the UK and Denmark.
He said public investment and the coordination of infrastructure, such as generation, electric vehicle charging stations and even health, community and education was “vital”.
“We can control our economic future by planning for transformation now, not leaving it up to big fossil fuel companies whose sole interest is in profits, to decide when they will close their operations, not allow private investors into new generation assets, to determine the pace and scale of change,” Mr Long said.
