Energy In Victoria
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Energy in Victoria, Australia is generated using a number of fuels or technologies, including coal, natural gas and
renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
sources. Brown coal, historically, was the main
primary energy Primary energy (PE) is an energy form found in nature that has not been subjected to any human engineered conversion process. It is energy contained in raw fuels, and other forms of energy, including waste, received as input to a system. Pr ...
source for the generation of
electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
in the state, accounting for about 85% of electricity generation in 2008. The amount of coal-fired power has decreased significantly with the closure in 2017 of the
Hazelwood power station The Hazelwood Power Station is a decommissioned brown coal-fuelled thermal power station located in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria, Australia. Built between 1964 and 1971, the 1,600-megawatt-capacity power station was made up of eight 200MW uni ...
which supplied around 20% of Victoria's electricity, and to a lesser extent with the exit of Anglesea power station in 2015. Brown coal is one of the largest contributors to Australia's total domestic
greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and lar ...
and a source of controversy for the country. Australia is one of the highest polluters of greenhouse gas per capita in the world. In 2020, the Greenhouse gas co-efficient for Victoria as advised by the Essential Services Commission was 1.13 kg -e/kWh, making it the highest co-efficient for electricity generation in Australia. Renewable energy supplies a rapidly increasing fraction of Victoria's electricity. In 2021, 33% of electricity generation was from renewable sources. In 2022, the state government announced a target to increase that to 95% by 2035.


History

The first electricity supplies to Melbourne were generated and distributed by a number of
private companies A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...
and municipal generator and distribution companies. The main municipal-owned
power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...
in Victoria was operated by the
Melbourne City Council The City of Melbourne is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central city area of Melbourne. In 2018, the city has an area of and had a population of 169,961. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. The ci ...
, which generated electricity from its
Spencer Street Power Station Spencer Street Power Station was a Victorian era coal and (later) oil-fired power station which operated on Spencer Street, Melbourne, Spencer Street in central Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The station was opened in 1894, ...
, which opened in 1892, for the city's residents, as well as being a wholesale supplier to other municipal distributors. The main privately owned company was the
Melbourne Electric Supply Company The Australian state of Victoria has a number of defunct energy supply and distribution utility companies. The North Melbourne Electric Tramways and Lighting Company The North Melbourne Electric Tramways and Lighting Company operated an electri ...
which was established in 1899. The company operated the
Richmond Power Station Richmond Power Station was a coal fired power station which operated on the banks of the Yarra River in Richmond, Victoria, Australia from its construction in 1891 until its closure in 1976. It was one of the first alternating current (AC) ele ...
, which had been opened in 1891, and the Geelong Power Station.Public Records Office: Agency VA 1002: State Electricity Commission of Victoria
It operated under franchise arrangements with a number of municipal distributors. The final major generator of electricity was the
Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...
which in 1918 opened the
Newport Power Station The Newport Power Station was a complex of power stations located on the west bank of the Yarra River, approximately 6 km south-west of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, in the suburb of Newport, Victoria, Newport. Newpo ...
, the largest power station in the urban area, to supply electricity as part of the electrification of Melbourne's suburban trains. These early generators all relied on fuel supplies from the strike prone black coal industry of
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
. Early electricity production in Victoria used relatively simple technology, but transmission over even a short distance was difficult. Initially, it was used only for public events - such as the Duke of Edinburgh's visit in 1867 and a night football match at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...
in 1879 - and lighting in the theatre. Small scale generating plants were built in Melbourne to serve small areas and industries. However, gas remained the fuel for street lighting in Melbourne until 1894, after the construction of the Spencer Street Power Station by the Melbourne City Council. This power station generated enough power to light Melbourne's streets. Other councils embraced Melbourne's initiative and streets in many nearby areas - such as
Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...
,
Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...
,
Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...
and
South Yarra South Yarra is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Stonnington local government areas. South Yarra recorded a popul ...
- were also lit by electricity by the late 1890s. Some councils set up their own distribution networks, including Footscray (1911), Brunswick (1912–13), Port Melbourne (1912–13), Preston (1912), Nunawading (1912), Northcote (1912), Coburg (1914), Heidelberg (1914), Williamstown (1915–16) and Doncaster (1916). The
State Electricity Commission of Victoria The State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV, ECV or SEC) is a government-owned electricity supplier in Victoria, Australia. It was set up in 1918, and by 1972 it was the sole agency in the state for electricity generation, transmission, ...
(SECV) was formed in 1921 to merge these small operations. In the 1920s the SECV investigated
hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...
power generation, in parallel with work on
brown coal Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...
fired power stations at
Yallourn Yallourn, Victoria was a company town in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia built between the 1920s and 1950s to house employees of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, who operated the nearby Yallourn Power Station, Victoria, Yal ...
. In 1922 a report was delivered by Messrs J.M. and H.E. Coane relating to the development of potential hydro-electric power on the
Goulburn River The Goulburn River, a major inland perennial river of the Goulburn Broken catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the alpine, Northern Country/North Central, and Southern Riverina regions of the Australian state of Victoria. ...
and the Cerberean Range. Their findings were then submitted to the
Parliament of Victoria The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly and ...
for funding, with the more cost effective project approved in 1922, and the
Rubicon Hydroelectric Scheme The Rubicon Hydroelectric Scheme is a small run-of-the-river hydroelectric scheme located on the Rubicon and Royston Rivers, north east of Melbourne, south-west of Alexandra, Victoria, Australia. The scheme commenced in 1922, and was the fir ...
commenced in that year. For the first ten years of its operation it supplied on average 16.9% of electricity generated by the SECV. The SECV took over a number of small municipal electricity distributors during the 1920s, and in the 1930s the
Melbourne Electric Supply Company The Australian state of Victoria has a number of defunct energy supply and distribution utility companies. The North Melbourne Electric Tramways and Lighting Company The North Melbourne Electric Tramways and Lighting Company operated an electri ...
was acquired along with its street tramway operations. 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 the privatisation of the industry in the 1990s. The first electric tram in Melbourne was built in 1889 by the Box Hill and Doncaster Tramway Company Limited, an enterprise which failed in 1896. Electric trams returned in 1906, with the opening of the
Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...
's Electric Street Railway from St Kilda to
Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
, and was followed in the same year with the opening of the North Melbourne Electric Tramway and Lighting Company (NMETL) system, which opened two lines from the cable tram terminus at Flemington Bridge to
Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...
and Saltwater River (now
Maribyrnong River The Maribyrnong River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip catchment, located in the northwestern suburbs of Melbourne, in the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. Course The Maribyrnong River draws its headwaters from near ...
). The NMELT was an electricity and tramway company that operated from 1906 to 1922. The electricity section was taken over by the SECV in 1922. The
Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board The Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB) was a government-owned authority that was responsible for the tram network in Melbourne, Australia between 1919 and 1983, when it was merged into the Metropolitan Transit Authority. It had bee ...
(MMTB) was formed in 1919 and took over all cable and electric trams in Melbourne. The MMTB extended the electric lines, and from 1924 progressively converted the existing cable system to electric traction. By 1940 all Melbourne cable tram had been converted to electric traction. The electrification of the Melbourne railway network took place in the 1920s. The SECV built the open cut mine in the
Latrobe Valley The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical district and urban area of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. The traditional owners are the Brayakaulung of the Gunai nation. The district lies east of Melbourne and nestle ...
and opened the first of many
brown coal Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...
fired power stations in the Latrobe Valley.
Yallourn Power Station The Yallourn Power Station, now owned by EnergyAustralia a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong-Kong-based CLP Group, is located in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, beside the Latrobe River, with the company town o ...
was built progressively from the 1920s to the 1960s. Since then the SECV opened two more open cut mines in the valley, feeding power stations at Hazelwood and
Loy Yang The Loy Yang Power Station is a brown coal- fired thermal power station located on the outskirts of the city of Traralgon, in south-eastern Victoria, Australia. It consists of two sections, known as Loy Yang A (4 units) and Loy Yang B (2 units). ...
. The responsibilities of the SECV were privatised between 1995 and 1999. In 1936,
Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...
was connected to the state
electrical grid An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...
, and by the 1960s Geelong A had closed. Geelong B remained for a few more years being used for peak loads only, but closed in 1970 due to the much higher efficiency of the new power stations in the Latrobe Valley. Richmond Power Station closed in 1976 and Spencer Street Power Station closed in 1982. Newport Power Station closed in the 1980s. Hazelwood power station closed in 2017. On 10 March 2021,
EnergyAustralia EnergyAustralia (formerly TRUenergy) is an electricity generation, electricity and gas retailing private company in Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based and listed China Light and Power (CLP Group). EnergyAustralia also ...
announced that it will close the
Yallourn Power Station The Yallourn Power Station, now owned by EnergyAustralia a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong-Kong-based CLP Group, is located in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, beside the Latrobe River, with the company town o ...
in mid-2028, four years ahead of schedule, and instead build a 350 megawatt power-generating battery in the Latrobe Valley by the end of 2026. At the time, Yallourn produced about 20% of Victoria's electricity. Minister for Energy
Lily D'Ambrosio Liliana D'Ambrosio (born 30 July 1964, in Melbourne) is an Australian politician. She has been a Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 2002, representing the electorate of Mill Park. She is presently Minister for Energ ...
said she anticipated by mid-2028 an influx of renewable energy into the national energy grid. When
Engie Engie SA is a French multinational utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum. ...
shut down the
Hazelwood Power Station The Hazelwood Power Station is a decommissioned brown coal-fuelled thermal power station located in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria, Australia. Built between 1964 and 1971, the 1,600-megawatt-capacity power station was made up of eight 200MW uni ...
in March 2017, with only six months’ notice, wholesale prices in Victoria were up 85% on 2016, according to the
Australian Energy Regulator The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) is the regulator of the wholesale electricity and gas markets in Australia. It is part of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and enforces the rules established by the Australian Energy Market C ...
, and for the first time in almost a decade, the state relied on energy from interstate to meet its needs.Government confident power bills won’t soar after Yallourn shuts
/ref> In the lead-up to the
2022 Victorian state election The 2022 Victorian state election was held on Saturday, 26 November 2022 to elect the 60th Parliament of Victoria. All 88 seats in the Legislative Assembly (lower house) and all 40 seats in the Legislative Council (upper house) were up for el ...
, Labor Premier
Daniel Andrews Daniel Michael Andrews (born 6 July 1972) is an Australian politician serving as the 48th and current premier of Victoria since December 2014. He has been the leader of the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since December ...
committed to reviving the State Electricity Commission if re-elected. The government would have a 51% shareholding in the new State Electricity Commission. Andrews committed to amending the state’s constitution to protect public ownership of the revived State Electricity Commission if re-elected, to make it harder, although not impossible, for it to be
privatised Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
again in the future. Re-privatising the commission after such legislation would require a " special majority" of 60% of both the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, a situation which already exists for any potential privitisation of water services in Victoria under the
Constitution of Victoria The Constitution of Victoria is the constitution of the state of Victoria, Australia. The current constitution, the Constitution Act 1975 was enacted in 1975, and has been amended several times. Since 1901, Victoria has been a state of the Commo ...
.


Electricity generation

Victoria is a participant in the
National Electricity Market The National Electricity Market (NEM) is an arrangement in Australia's electricity sector for the connection of the electricity transmission grids of the eastern and southern Australia states and territories to create a cross-state wholesale elec ...
, and the Victorian electricity grid has substantial interconnections with New South Wales (through multiple land-based connectors), Tasmania (through
Basslink The Basslink () electricity interconnector is a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable linking the electricity grids of the states of Victoria and Tasmania in Australia, crossing Bass Strait, connecting the Loy Yang Power Station, Victoria on ...
) and South Australia (through the Heywood Interconnector). Victoria has historically been a net exporter of electricity, though interstate trade generally represents a relatively small proportion of total energy generation.


Coal-fired generators

As of 2022, the majority of electricity in Victoria is generated by three brown coal fired thermal power stations in the
Latrobe Valley The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical district and urban area of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. The traditional owners are the Brayakaulung of the Gunai nation. The district lies east of Melbourne and nestle ...
:
Loy Yang The Loy Yang Power Station is a brown coal- fired thermal power station located on the outskirts of the city of Traralgon, in south-eastern Victoria, Australia. It consists of two sections, known as Loy Yang A (4 units) and Loy Yang B (2 units). ...
A and B, and
Yallourn Yallourn, Victoria was a company town in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia built between the 1920s and 1950s to house employees of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, who operated the nearby Yallourn Power Station, Victoria, Yal ...
. Originally commissioned by the SECV, they were
privatised Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
by the Kennett government in 1995 along the rest of Victoria's generation and distribution infrastructure. The largest single electricity consumer in Victoria is the
Portland aluminium smelter The Portland aluminium smelter is located at Portland, Victoria, Australia. The smelter has a production capacity of 345,000 tonnes of aluminium per year The smelter is a joint venture owned by Alcoa World Alumina & Chemicals (55%), CITIC (22.5%) ...
. Unlike many other states, the major coalfields of Victoria contain brown coal. The high water content of this coal makes it less suited for combustion without specialised technology. As a result, in the early years of Victoria the state was dependent on
black coal Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. It ...
imports from
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
for its fuel needs. In general, Latrobe Valley brown coal has a low ash content. The ash constituents vary significantly across the region but various silicates and oxides (Mg, Fe, Al, Ca and Na) are typical. In the 1920s the Latrobe Valley coalfields began to be exploited for power generation. Additional brown coal reserves were at Altona, and Anglesea, and black coal in the
Strzelecki Ranges The Strzelecki Ranges (pronounced STREHZ leckee) is a set of low mountain ridges located in the West Gippsland and South Gippsland regions of the Australian state of Victoria. The Ranges are named after Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, a Polish explor ...
in
South Gippsland South Gippsland, a region of Gippsland in Victoria, Australia, is a well-watered region consisting of low, rolling hills descending to the coast in the south and the Latrobe Valley in the north. Low granite hills continue into Wilsons Promonto ...
. Both the Altona and Strzelecki Ranges coalfields were small in size, and required underground mining. Production in these mines increased into the early 20th century. The Anglesea coalfield has been mined for
Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for Aluminum Company of America) is a Pittsburgh-based industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary ...
's Anglesea Power Station since the 1960s, before both the power station and coalfield were shut in 2015. The amount of coal-fired power has decreased significantly with the closure in 2017 of the
Hazelwood Power Station The Hazelwood Power Station is a decommissioned brown coal-fuelled thermal power station located in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria, Australia. Built between 1964 and 1971, the 1,600-megawatt-capacity power station was made up of eight 200MW uni ...
which supplied around 20% of Victoria's electricity consumption, and to a lesser extent with the exit of Anglesea Power Station in 2015. In 2013/14, the Latrobe Valley produced 98.5% of Australia's total brown coal production at 57.8 Mt, down from 66.7 Mt in 2001/02. Coal mines in Victoria operating in 2019 are: A short-lived carbon pricing system was introduced by the federal government in 2011 and repealed in 2014, so the high emissions intensity of the brown coal plants does not result in any direct financial difficulties for their owners. However, as in most of the world, new-build coal plants are financially unattractive compared to renewable energy. Yallourn power station is scheduled to close in 2028. Loy Yang A and B are currently scheduled to operate into the 2040s, according to their owners; however, observers expect Loy Yang's retirement to be accelerated due to competition from renewables and future government policy to reduce emissions.


Renewable energy

In 2006, Victoria was the first state to have a renewable energy target of 10% by 2016. In 2010, the target was increased to 25% by 2020.(21 July 2010)
Victoria targets solar energy as new report shows renewable energy potential
/ref> The Victorian government has set renewable energy targets of 40% by 2025. In 2021, 33% of all power generation in Victoria was from renewable sources.


Hydro

Victoria has a limited
hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...
power generation system due to the limited water resources. The
Rubicon Hydroelectric Scheme The Rubicon Hydroelectric Scheme is a small run-of-the-river hydroelectric scheme located on the Rubicon and Royston Rivers, north east of Melbourne, south-west of Alexandra, Victoria, Australia. The scheme commenced in 1922, and was the fir ...
was completed by the SECV in 1924, and was an important component of the state electrical grid at the time. It was later followed by the
Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme The Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme is the largest hydro-electric scheme in the Australian States and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria and the second-largest in mainland Australia after the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The ...
that was constructed between 1938 and 1961, the Eildon Power Station in 1956, Victoria's involvement in the
Snowy Mountains Scheme The Snowy Mountains Scheme or Snowy scheme is a hydroelectricity and irrigation complex in south-east Australia. The Scheme consists of sixteen major dams; nine power stations; two pumping stations; and of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts that ...
that was built from the 1950s to 1970s, and the Dartmouth Power Station in 1981. The most recent expansion of hydropower in Victoria was the Bogong Power Station, a 95 MW extension to the Kiewa scheme completed in 2009. There are currently no proposals for the expansion of hydroelectric power in Victoria. The Snowy 2.0 pumped storage scheme in NSW will provide additional dispatchable hydroelectricity through interstate electricity interconnections.


Solar

Solar energy usage has been growing very rapidly in Victoria, of which the majority is small-scale grid-connected rooftop solar generation. In 2021, 10% of all electricity generation was solar energy, up from 1.7% in 2015. There are over 600,000 small-scale solar systems (defined as less than 100kW of nameplate capacity) installed in the state as of mid-2022. They generated about 8.5% of Victoria's total electricity generation in 2021. Australia's small-scale residential and commercial solar systems are amongst the cheapest in the developed world, excluding subsidies, and there have been a variety of state and federal subsidies to support households and businesses purchasing solar systems. As of June 2022, there are 15 larger-scale solar farms operating in Victoria, with a nameplate capacity of 695.2 MW, and five more, with a capacity of 710 MW, are under construction. Many more are planned.


Wind

Trials of
wind power Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to electricity generation, generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable energy, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller Environmental impact of wi ...
in Victoria commenced in 1987, when the State Electricity Commission of Victoria erected a 60 kW capacity Westwind
wind generator A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. Wi ...
at
Breamlea Breamlea, Victoria, Australia, is a secluded seaside hamlet located on the south coast of the Bellarine Peninsula, 18 kilometres south of Geelong, and halfway between Barwon Heads and Torquay. It is divided between the City of Greater Geelong ...
as a demonstration project. The generator was sold to a private group in 1994 with the
privatisation Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
of the SECV. It was not until the early 2000s that the commercial use of wind power for electricity commenced. Wind farms at Codrington, Challicum Hills and
Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
were all built by private companies with State Government funding assistance. By October 2011 there were eight operating wind farms with 428MW of capacity. The development of new wind farms in Victoria became much harder following the election of the Baillieu government who amended the planning scheme in August 2011 to give any landholder within two kilometres a power of veto over a project. This was an unprecedented planning doctrine and according to wind power companies, this change threatened the viability of investment in the state. Despite these obstacles and difficulties with grid connection, wind generation has continued to expand in Victoria. As of June 2022, there was approximately 3.6 GW of wind generation capacity in Victoria. Wind was the source of approximately 16.3% of electricity generated in Victoria in 2021. 862MW of additional capacity was listed as "in commissioning" as of June 2022. The majority of Victoria's wind farms are located in south-western Victoria, with a few in south Gippsland. As of 2022, Victoria does not have any offshore wind generation. The state government has committed to purchasing at least 2GW of offshore wind capacity by 2032, with longer-term targets of 4GW by 2035 and 9GW by 2040. Three project proposals for offshore wind farms along the Gippsland coastline have received preliminary funding for design and feasibility work.


Battery storage

There are four large-scale
battery storage A battery storage power station is a type of energy storage power station that uses a group of batteries to store electrical energy. Battery storage is the fastest responding dispatchable source of power on electric grids, and it is used to s ...
systems in Victoria. By far the largest to date is the
Victorian Big Battery The Victorian Big Battery is a grid-connected battery electricity storage facility adjacent to the Moorabool Terminal Station ( substation) near Geelong in Victoria, Australia. The battery provides 450 MWh of storage and can discharge at 300 MW ...
, a 300MW/450 MWh battery storage facility which was connected to the Victorian electricity grid in 2021.


Wood and other biomass

Wood-burning stove A wood-burning stove (or wood burner or log burner in the UK) is a heating or cooking appliance capable of burning wood fuel and wood-derived biomass fuel, such as sawdust bricks. Generally the appliance consists of a solid metal (usually cast i ...
s are widely used in Victoria, though quantitative estimates are less accurate due to the lack of any centralized distribution network for wood. One survey estimated that approximately 28% of Victorians used wood heating, with usage higher outside metropolitan areas and amongst less well-off households. Limited quantities of firewood can be collected for personal use from some state-managed forest areas at no cost. There are also numerous commercial firewood collectors who contract to harvest firewood from publicly managed forests and private land. There have been calls for "buy-back" schemes to remove wood heaters, due to the health effects of the air pollution from them. Aside from wood domestic heating, the other major form of biomass energy used in Victoria is the burning of wood waste from
sawmills A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
, both for process heat for wood treatment and for electricity production. Some of this is exported to the grid. E10 fuel, generally made from bioethanol imported from interstate or overseas, is widely available in Victoria, though most petrol stations also sell petrol that is not blended with ethanol.


Briquettes

Due to the low energy value of raw brown coal, long-distance transport of the fuel was not economic. As a result, the State Electricity Commission of Victoria used German technology to produce hard
briquette A briquette (; also spelled briquet) is a compressed block of coal dust or other combustible biomass material (e.g. charcoal, sawdust, wood chips, peat, or paper) used for fuel and kindling to start a fire. The term derives from the French word '' ...
s from Latrobe Valley brown coal. The initial plant was established in the 1920s at
Yallourn Yallourn, Victoria was a company town in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia built between the 1920s and 1950s to house employees of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, who operated the nearby Yallourn Power Station, Victoria, Yal ...
, with a second opening at
Morwell Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne. Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the . It is both the seat of local governme ...
in the 1940s. These plants crushed, dried and pressed brown coal to extract the water, and form a hard fast-burning block that was easy to transport. The SECV encouraged the use of briquettes in both industrial and domestic cooking and heating, as a replacement for imported black coal. Briquettes were also used in a number of peak load thermal power stations that were located away from the Latrobe Valley. Briquette usage in Victoria dropped after the introduction of
natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
to the state, but the Morwell Energy Brix factory continued in operation until August 2014.


Gas


History

Town gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...
was initially supplied to
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
by private companies such as the Metropolitan Gas Company from the 1850s, and the Brighton Gas Company which was floated in 1877,Kingston Historical website
The Highett Gasworks
/ref> and others, all of which operated their own small gasworks which converted
black coal Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. It ...
into gas, with
gasworks A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...
being scattered throughout the suburbs. Town gas was used for lighting, heating, and cooking, and replaced kerosene for lighting. It was also used for street lighting before electricity became available starting in the 1890s. The Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria was formed in 1951 to manage gas supplies for the state. It took over Metropolitan Gas Company and Brighton Gas Company and over time also acquired the other local municipal and company gas works.Research Data Australia - Gas and Fuel Corporation
/ref> Its first project was the building of a centralised brown coal gasification plant at
Morwell Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne. Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the . It is both the seat of local governme ...
. The plant opened in 1956 and used the German Lurgi process to produce gas that was transferred to Melbourne via a high pressure gas pipeline.Technology in Australia 1788-1988
/ref> The production of town gas was changed in the late 1950s when
Syngas Syngas, or synthesis gas, is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, in various ratios. The gas often contains some carbon dioxide and methane. It is principly used for producing ammonia or methanol. Syngas is combustible and can be used as ...
production was developed, a process that converted waste gases from
oil refineries An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefie ...
to a useful energy product. The search for
natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
in
Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
off
Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...
commenced in the mid-1960s by
Esso Australia ExxonMobil Australia (formerly Esso Australia) is an Australian affiliate of ExxonMobil, the U.S.-based oil giant. It operates a number of oil and gas platforms in Bass Strait, south east of Melbourne, Australia, as well as a gas processing f ...
and
BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...
. The floating rig ''Glomar III'' was used for exploration drilling, which begun on 27 December 1964. After two months gas was struck, and by June 1965 it was confirmed that a major gas field had been found. Known as the Barracouta field, discovery of the Marlin field followed in March 1966.Technology in Australia 1788-1988: Discovery in Bass Strait
/ref> Both of these fields use offshore
drilling rigs A drilling rig is an integrated system that drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construction purposes, into the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill wat ...
as a production base. The Longford gas plant acted as the onshore receiving point for oil and natural gas output from production platforms in Bass Strait. By 1969 the production plant and distribution network were complete, allowing natural gas to be sold to consumers. A majority of Victoria consumers converting gas appliances to natural gas by the 1970s.
VENCorp The Victorian Energy Networks Corporation (VENCorp) was a Victorian State Government-owned entity established in December 1997 responsible for the efficient operation of gas and electricity industries in Victoria, Australia, within Victoria's p ...
was established in 1997. In 1994, the Kennett Government
privatised Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
the distribution, retail and transmission companies, along with the
State Electricity Commission of Victoria The State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV, ECV or SEC) is a government-owned electricity supplier in Victoria, Australia. It was set up in 1918, and by 1972 it was the sole agency in the state for electricity generation, transmission, ...
, Victoria's main electricity utility. The G&FC was wound up in June 1995. Gascor acted as a gas wholesaler, purchasing gas from Esso/BHP-Billiton and on-selling it to private sector gas retailers
Origin Energy Origin Energy an ASX listed public company with headquarters in Sydney. It is a major integrated electricity generator, and electricity and natural gas retailer. It operates Australia’s largest coal-fired power station at Lake Macquarie, New ...
, AGL and TXU. In March 1999, Envestra (now
Australian Gas Networks Australian Gas Networks Limited, formerly Envestra Limited, is an Australian energy company that operates natural gas transmission pipelines and distribution networks in South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, and the Northern Ter ...
) acquired part of the former Corporation's distribution network. Until 1 October 2002, each retailer supplied gas in a defined geographical area, and from that date the gas market in Victoria was opened to new gas retailers and full retail contestability for gas customers was introduced, enabling gas retailers to seek customers state-wide. At that time, there were three retailers, which continued to be the major retailers. Full retail price deregulation occurred in 2009. Victoria Electricity (later
Lumo Energy Lumo Energy is an Australian energy retailer operating in Victoria and South Australia, which has been wholly owned by Snowy Hydro since 2014. The business offers electricity and gas packages in Victoria and South Australia. As of October 201 ...
) applied for and obtained a gas retailing licence in December 2004 and commenced gas retailing in early 2005. In 2005, TXU sold its Australian assets to
Singapore Power Singapore Power Limited, trading as SP Group ( abbreviation: SP) is a government-affliated electricity and gas distribution company in Singapore. Singapore Power Group is the corporatised entity of the former electricity and gas departments of ...
, which retained the distribution businesses (
electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
and
natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
distribution networks) in Victoria, and onsold the remainder. Singapore Power then floated 49% of the business as SP Ausnet, retaining 51%. In May 2013, Singapore Power sold 19.9% of its 51% stake in the business to
State Grid Corporation of China The State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), commonly known as the State Grid, is a Chinese state-owned electric utility corporation. It is the largest utility company in the world, and as of 2022, the world's third largest company overall by re ...
. SP AusNet changed its name to AusNet Services in August 2014. In September 2014, Hong Kong-based
Cheung Kong Group Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, is a multinational conglomerate, based in Hong Kong. It was one of Hong Kong's leading multi-national conglomerates. The company merged with its subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa on 3 June 2015, as part of a major ...
bought all the shares in Envestra, including APA's 33.4% stake, while APA retained the operation and management of Envestra's assets until 2027. In October 2014 Envestra's name was changed to Australian Gas Networks Limited. In September 1998, the
Esso Longford gas explosion The Esso Longford gas explosion was a catastrophic industrial accident which occurred at the Esso Natural gas processing, natural gas plant at Longford, Victoria, Longford in the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria's Gippsland reg ...
took place in which two workers died and eight were injured, and resulted in gas supplies in the state being severely affected for two weeks. Additional gas reserves were discovered in the
Otway Basin The Otway Basin is a northwest trending sedimentary basin located along the southern coast of Australia. The basin covers an area of 150,000 square kilometers and spans from southeastern South Australia to southwestern Victoria, with 80% lying off ...
offshore from the
Otway Ranges The Great Otway National Park is a national park located in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia. The national park is situated approximately southwest of Melbourne, in the Otway Ranges, a low coastal mountain range. It conta ...
in recent years.
BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...
discovered the Minerva gas field 1993, with production commencing in 2004. The
Santos Limited Santos Ltd. (South Australia Northern Territory Oil Search) is an Australian oil and gas exploration and production company, with its headquarters in Adelaide, South Australia. It owns liquefied natural gas (LNG), pipeline gas, and oil assets. ...
operated Casino field was discovered in 2002, and started production in 2006. In 2002
Woodside Petroleum Woodside Energy Group Ltd (formerly Woodside Petroleum Ltd) is an Australian petroleum exploration and production company. Woodside is the operator of oil and gas production in Australia and also Australia's largest independent dedicated oil an ...
prepared to develop their Geographe and Thylacine gas fields. These newer gas fields use undersea
wellhead A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production equipment. The primary purpose of a wellhead is to provide the suspension point and ...
s connected to the shore and production facilities with pipelines, minimising the visual impact on the coastline.


Current structure

Today approximately 1.5 million domestic customers in Victoria are supplied with gas via over 25,000 kilometres of mains. Industrial and commercial consumers account for nearly 50% of gas sales. In the 2005/2006 fiscal year, the average gas production in Victoria was over per day and represented 18% of the total national gas sales, with demand growing at 2% a year.DEPARTMENT OF PRIMARY INDUSTRIES: Oil and Gas
Victorian households have the second-highest usage (per household) of natural gas in Australia, with only the Australian Capital Territory having higher household consumption. This is the result of wide availability of gas and colder winter weather than other Australian mainland states. Gas supplies come from offshore Bass Strait gas fields -
Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...
, Otway and Bass basins. The Longford gas plant, the onshore receiving point for oil and natural gas output from production platforms in Bass Strait off Gippsland, is currently owned by a joint partnership between
ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...
and
BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...
, and is the primary provider of natural gas to Victoria, and also provides some supply to
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
and
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
. The Dandenong LNG gas storage facility provides flexibility to the east Australian gas market, by hedging against risks such as outages or emergencies and peak demand periods. The Iona underground storage, near
Port Campbell Port Campbell () is a coastal town in Victoria, Australia. The town is on the Great Ocean Road, west of the Twelve Apostles, in the Shire of Corangamite. At the , Port Campbell had a population of 478. History The port and the town are name ...
, Victoria. Cooper Basin Gas (and Queensland and NSW coal seam gas) via the MSP and NSW-Victoria Interconnect also provides gas for the Victorian market.
Australian Gas Networks Australian Gas Networks Limited, formerly Envestra Limited, is an Australian energy company that operates natural gas transmission pipelines and distribution networks in South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, and the Northern Ter ...
owns most of the transmission pipelines in Victoria. Gas Pipelines Victoria Pty Ltd owns the transmission pipeline from Carisbrook to Horsham. The gas distributors in Victoria include: * AusNet Services — 31.1% owned by
Singapore Power Singapore Power Limited, trading as SP Group ( abbreviation: SP) is a government-affliated electricity and gas distribution company in Singapore. Singapore Power Group is the corporatised entity of the former electricity and gas departments of ...
, 19.9% by
State Grid Corporation of China The State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), commonly known as the State Grid, is a Chinese state-owned electric utility corporation. It is the largest utility company in the world, and as of 2022, the world's third largest company overall by re ...
and the other 49% is publicly owned. *
Jemena SGSP (Australia) Assets Pty Ltd (SGSPAA), trading as Jemena, is an Australian company that owns, manages or operates energy infrastructure assets in the eastern states of Australia including Queensland and New South Wales, and gas pipelines and ...
— 60% owned by
State Grid Corporation of China The State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), commonly known as the State Grid, is a Chinese state-owned electric utility corporation. It is the largest utility company in the world, and as of 2022, the world's third largest company overall by re ...
and 40% by
Singapore Power Singapore Power Limited, trading as SP Group ( abbreviation: SP) is a government-affliated electricity and gas distribution company in Singapore. Singapore Power Group is the corporatised entity of the former electricity and gas departments of ...
. Its VicHub, which was commissioned in January 2003, is an interconnect facility situated at the Longford Compressor Station which enables gas to flow bi-directionally between the
Eastern Gas Pipeline The Eastern Gas Pipeline (EGP) is a natural gas pipeline. It is a key supply artery between the Gippsland Basin in Victoria and New South Wales, Australia. The EGP is currently operated by Jemena. The EGP supplies more than half the gas consume ...
and the Victorian gas transmission system. The Eastern Gas Pipeline, also owned by Jemena, is a supply pipeline between the Gippsland Basin, Victoria and New South Wales. The pipeline supplies more than half the gas consumed in New South Wales, including
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
,
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
and
Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...
, and regional centres
Bairnsdale Bairnsdale () ( Ganai: ''Wy-yung'') is a city in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia in a region traditionally owned by the Tatungalung clan of the Gunaikurnai people. The estimated population of Bairnsdale urban area was 15,411 at Ju ...
,
Cooma Cooma is a town in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway. It is also on the Snowy Mountains Highway, connecting Bega with the Riverina. At the , Cooma had a po ...
,
Nowra Nowra is a city in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south-southwest of the state capital of Sydney (about as the crow flies). As of the 2021 census, Nowra has an estimated population of 22,584. Situated in th ...
and
Bomaderry Bomaderry (locally known as "Bommo") is a town in the Shoalhaven council district area of New South Wales, Australia. At the , it had a population of 8,718 people. It is on the north shore of the Shoalhaven River, across the river from Nowra, the ...
. *
Australian Gas Networks Australian Gas Networks Limited, formerly Envestra Limited, is an Australian energy company that operates natural gas transmission pipelines and distribution networks in South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, and the Northern Ter ...
— owned by Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI).Melbourne's electricity and gas facing greater Chinese control
/ref>
/ref> *
Multinet Gas Multinet Gas Networks (MGN) is an Australian energy company and one of three Victorian natural gas distribution networks. MGN is one of three main companies that make up Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG), the other two being Australian ...
— owned by the DUET Group, now owned by CKI. Today, there are 18 energy retailers in Victoria, nine of which are also gas retailers. The major retailers are
AGL Energy AGL Energy Ltd () is an Australian listed public company involved in both the generation and retailing of electricity and gas for residential and commercial use. AGL is Australia's largest electricity generator, and the nation's largest carbo ...
,
EnergyAustralia EnergyAustralia (formerly TRUenergy) is an electricity generation, electricity and gas retailing private company in Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based and listed China Light and Power (CLP Group). EnergyAustralia also ...
(formerly TRU), and
Origin Energy Origin Energy an ASX listed public company with headquarters in Sydney. It is a major integrated electricity generator, and electricity and natural gas retailer. It operates Australia’s largest coal-fired power station at Lake Macquarie, New ...
(representing almost 30% of Australian east coast domestic gas market demandAPLNG joint venture to boost gas supply to east coast
/ref>); with the others being
Alinta Alinta was an Australian energy infrastructure company. It has grown from a small, Western Australia-based gas distributor and retailer to the largest energy infrastructure company in Australia. It was bought in 2007 by a consortium including S ...
,
Dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The ...
,
Lumo Energy Lumo Energy is an Australian energy retailer operating in Victoria and South Australia, which has been wholly owned by Snowy Hydro since 2014. The business offers electricity and gas packages in Victoria and South Australia. As of October 201 ...
,
Momentum Energy In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a Euclidean vector, vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is a ...
,
Red Energy Snowy Hydro Limited is an electricity generation and retailing company in Australia that owns, manages, and maintains the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme which consists of nine hydro-electric power stations and sixteen large dams connecte ...
, and
Simply Energy Simply Energy is an Australian energy retailer, providing electricity and gas to more than 700,000 accounts across Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, with sales totalling 12% of the Australian market. It ...
. The retailers issue bills to its customers based on gas usage information provided by the distributors. The Tasmanian Gas Pipeline was constructed and commissioned by Duke Energy in 2002. It is a submarine and onshore
gas pipeline Pipeline transport is the long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas through a system of pipes—a pipeline—typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countr ...
which transports natural gas from the Longford gas plant, under
Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
, to
Bell Bay, Tasmania Bell Bay is an industrial centre and port located on the eastern shore of the Tamar River, in northern Tasmania, Australia. It lies just south of George Town. In the year ended June 2021, 3.6 million tonnes of exports and imports passed through ...
.Tasmanian Gas Pipeline
/ref> Tasmanian Gas Pipeline (TGP) Pty Ltd is the owner and licensee of the Tasmanian Gas Pipeline. In April 2004
Alinta Alinta was an Australian energy infrastructure company. It has grown from a small, Western Australia-based gas distributor and retailer to the largest energy infrastructure company in Australia. It was bought in 2007 by a consortium including S ...
acquired Duke Energy's assets in Australia and New Zealand. In Tasmania, the gas fueled the Bell Bay and the
Tamar Valley Power Station Tamar Valley Power Station is a $230 million natural gas-fired power station located in Bell Bay in the Tamar Valley, Tasmania. It is owned by Hydro Tasmania, and is immediately adjacent to the decommissioned Bell Bay Power Station, which is al ...
s until the completion of
Basslink The Basslink () electricity interconnector is a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable linking the electricity grids of the states of Victoria and Tasmania in Australia, crossing Bass Strait, connecting the Loy Yang Power Station, Victoria on ...
made them redundant. To increase the security of natural gas supply to Adelaide, natural gas from
EnergyAustralia EnergyAustralia (formerly TRUenergy) is an electricity generation, electricity and gas retailing private company in Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based and listed China Light and Power (CLP Group). EnergyAustralia also ...
's Victorian
Otway Basin The Otway Basin is a northwest trending sedimentary basin located along the southern coast of Australia. The basin covers an area of 150,000 square kilometers and spans from southeastern South Australia to southwestern Victoria, with 80% lying off ...
is piped from the Iona Gas Plant near
Port Campbell Port Campbell () is a coastal town in Victoria, Australia. The town is on the Great Ocean Road, west of the Twelve Apostles, in the Shire of Corangamite. At the , Port Campbell had a population of 478. History The port and the town are name ...
, Victoria, and
Origin Energy Origin Energy an ASX listed public company with headquarters in Sydney. It is a major integrated electricity generator, and electricity and natural gas retailer. It operates Australia’s largest coal-fired power station at Lake Macquarie, New ...
's
Otway Gas Plant Otway may refer to: Places Australia *Cape Otway, a geographical feature on the coast of Victoria, Australia *Shire of Colac Otway, Victoria, Australia *Great Otway National Park, a national park in Victoria, Australia *Otway Basin, a geological fe ...
, via the 687 km SEAGas pipeline to the gas-fired
Pelican Point Power Station The Pelican Point Power Station is located at Pelican Point, 20 km from the centre of Adelaide, South Australia on the Lefevre Peninsula. It is operated by Engie (previously known as GDF Suez Australian Energy), which owns 72 per cent of ...
at Port Adelaide. The pipeline is owned and operated by South East Australia Gas Pty Ltd which is owned in a 50-50 partnership by APA Group (Australia) and the
Retail Employees Superannuation Trust Rest Super is an Australian industry superannuation fund established in 1988. It is one of Australia's largest superannuation funds by membership, with around 1.9 million members in June 2022. Rest currently manages A$66 billion in funds. Go ...
. Production from the Bass Strait fields is declining, and AEMO has stated that Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania may face gas shortages during the 2020s. A floating LNG import terminal at
Corio Bay Corio Bay is one of numerous internal bays in the southwest corner of Australia's Port Phillip, and is the bay on which abuts the City of Geelong. The nearby suburb of Corio takes its name from Corio Bay. Etymology When Hamilton Hume and Willi ...
has been proposed by
Viva Energy Viva Energy () is an Australian company that owns the Geelong Oil Refinery and retails Shell-branded fuels across Australia under a license agreement. It also owns and retails Liberty Oil and Woodside Petroleum-branded service stations. In total ...
as a way to cover the shortfall. The proposed terminal has been opposed on environmental and safety grounds. For the medium and longer term, the Victorian state government has announced a roadmap to gradually phase out the use of natural gas due to supply, cost, and environmental issues, to be replaced with a mixture of
electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...
,
biogas Biogas is a mixture of gases, primarily consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste and food waste. It is a ...
, and hydrogen from clean sources. Modeling for the roadmap suggests that electrification is likely to take place over the 2020s and 2030s, with large-scale adoption of hydrogen to replace remaining gas usage more likely to begin in around 2040.


Oil

Oil was first discovered in the Gippsland Basin under
Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
by
Esso Australia ExxonMobil Australia (formerly Esso Australia) is an Australian affiliate of ExxonMobil, the U.S.-based oil giant. It operates a number of oil and gas platforms in Bass Strait, south east of Melbourne, Australia, as well as a gas processing f ...
and
BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...
in March 1966 in what is now the Marlin field. By early 1968, the Halibut and Kingfish oil fields were discovered nearby. Production from the fields was estimated at up to per day, with recoverable reserves in the Gippsland Basin in the region of . In 1985, oil production from the Gippsland Basin peaked to an annual average of per day. However, production has gradually declined and in the 2020-2021 financial year, production had was only per day. The vast majority of Victoria's petroleum is now imported, either as crude oil or refined products. There is one oil refinery in Victoria, the
Geelong Oil Refinery The Geelong Oil Refinery is an oil refinery owned and operated by Viva Energy in Corio near Geelong in the Australian state of Victoria. In 2017, it was Australia's second-largest oil refinery, able to process 7.5 billion litres of crude oil pe ...
. There have been a number of attempts to produce liquid fuels from Victoria's brown coal (a process known as
coal liquefaction Coal liquefaction is a process of converting coal into liquid hydrocarbons: liquid fuels and petrochemicals. This process is often known as "Coal to X" or "Carbon to X", where X can be many different hydrocarbon-based products. However, the most c ...
). One large-scale Japanese-funded pilot project at Morwell operated from 1987 to 1990. The project, which cost $A 1 billion (equivalent to $A billion in ), was a technical success, and it was estimated that synthetic crude oil could be produced for US$30 per barrel if the plant was scaled up for commercial operation. The project did not proceed further as the production cost of the synthetic oil was uneconomic.


Hydrogen

As previously mentioned, town gas (a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and other hydrocarbon gases) was produced from black and brown coal through the 19th and 20th centuries. Since the 2010s, there has been interest in hydrogen production for
fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...
, primarily for export to Asia. A pilot project, the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) Project, from 2019 to 2022, supported by the state and federal governments, AGL, and a number of large Japanese industrial companies including
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (or simply Kawasaki) is a Japanese Public company, public multinational corporation manufacturer of motorcycles, engines, Heavy equipment (construction), heavy equipment, aerospace and Military, defense equipment, rolling stock and ships, headq ...
. Brown coal from the Latrobe Valley was successfully gasified, purified, liquified, and shipped to Japan. According to the project partners, the project represented the largest-scale shipping of hydrogen to date. The project partners propose that a commercial-scale gasification operation would use
carbon capture and storage Carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon capture and sequestration is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) before it enters the atmosphere, transporting it, and storing it (carbon sequestration) for centuries or millennia. Usually th ...
to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emitted in the production process. No carbon capture was implemented in the pilot project. According to the project partners, a decision whether to proceed to commercial production will be made "in the 2020s, with operations targeted in the 2030s. The proposal has been criticised as "greenwash", for instance by left-leaning think tank,
The Australia Institute The Australia Institute is a left-wing public policy think tank based in Canberra, Australia. Since its launch in 1994, it has carried out research on a broad range of economic, social, and environmental issues. The institute has offices in Ca ...
. They argue that CCS projects have a long history of failure, usually only capture a fraction of total emissions, and that the hydrogen produced by a commercial coal gasification operation in Victoria would compete against cleaner "green hydrogen" produced by electrolysis powered by renewable energy.


See also

*
Energy policy of Australia The energy policy of Australia is subject to the regulatory and fiscal influence of all three levels of government in Australia, although only the State and Federal levels determine policy for primary industries such as coal. Federal policies ...
*
Renewable energy in Australia Renewable energy in Australia includes wind power, hydroelectricity, solar PV, heat pumps, geothermal, wave and solar thermal energy. In 2021, Australia produced 74,679 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy, which accounted for 32.5% of electr ...
*
Solar power in Australia Solar power in Australia is a fast growing industry. As of September 2022, Australia's over 3.27 million solar PV installations had a combined capacity of 28,177 MW photovoltaic (PV) solar power, of which at least 4,258 MW was installed in the ...
*
Wind power in Australia Wind power is one of the main renewable energy sources in Australia contributing 10% of Australia's total electricity supply in 2020, and making up 37.5% of it's renewable energy supply. Wind resource testing conditions in Australia are opti ...


References


Further reading

* * * {{Australia topic, title=
Energy in Australia Energy in Australia is the production in Australia of energy and electricity, for consumption or export. Energy policy of Australia describes the politics of Australia as it relates to energy. Australia is a net energy exporter, and was the ...
, prefix=Energy in, VI=Victoria (Australia)