Zibelman, Finkel join expert panel to advise Victoria on controversial public utility

A team of high profile energy experts has been put together to guide the reboot of Victoria’s State Electricity Commission as a publicly owned utility charged with leading the state’s push to 95 per cent renewables by 2035.

The Labor Andrews government was returned to power in Victoria in November of 2022 having promised to bring back the SEC to build out new wind and solar and to break the dominance of fossil fuel companies.

The expert advisory panel for the new SEC, announced on Tuesday, includes former Australian Energy Market Operator CEO Audrey Zibelman, ClimateWorks Centre CEO Anna Skarbek, and Australia’s former chief scientist Alan Finkel

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says the panel of experts – which also includes former Telstra CEO Andy Penn and Jo Benvenuti, a former executive at Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre – will help ensure the new utility delivers the maximum benefits of public energy ownership, namely: lower prices and faster investment.

The panel will be chaired by John Bradley, secretary of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, and headed up by SEC CEO Chris Miller – the former deputy secretary of tourism and events at the Department of Jobs, and an ex-senior executive at the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

Andrews announced his intention to revive the SEC in Victoria in the lead-up to the election, including plans to invest $1 billion towards delivering 4.5GW of renewable energy by 2035 – the equivalent replacement capacity of the state’s Loy Yang A coal plant.

That new capacity, much of which is expected to come from new wind generation, including from offshore projects, will be 51% owned by the Victorian taxpayer, with super funds tipped as a preferred investment partner for the other 49%.

The announcement has created controversy within the energy markets, with some concerned how it will impact private investments. Few details of how it will operate have been revealed.

On the announcement of the expert panel appointments this week, the government says the SEC would begin market sounding for its first investment in the first half of this year, engaging with industry, unions and training providers through a skills and workforce forum.

Andrews says the forum will ensure we have the workforce and skills for the thousands of new roles needed to construct, maintain, and operate clean energy assets under Victoria’s renewables revolution.

“We promised we wouldn’t waste a moment setting up the SEC to put power back in Victorians’ hands, and we’re getting on with it – with our Expert Panel up and running,” said Andrews on Tuesday.

Government says the SEC will help deliver more than 59,000 new jobs to build, maintain, and operate the new renewable energy assets. A guaranteed 10 per cent of those jobs will be apprenticeships and traineeships.

Listen to Victoria state energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio discuss the state energy policies on our Energy Transformed podcast series.