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 unit ...
which supplied around 20% of Victoria's electricity, and to a lesser extent with the exit of
Anglesea power station
The Anglesea Power Station was a brown coalpowered thermal power station located at Anglesea, in Victoria, Australia. The station had one steam turbine, with a capacity of . It was operated by Alcoa of Australia and supplied almost 40% of the ...
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, 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 in central Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The station was opened in 1894, and supplied power to the city's residents, as w ...
, 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 electric ...
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
The city of Geelong, Victoria, Australia was once home to two coal fueled power stations - Geelong A and Geelong B.
The first moves to providing an electricity supply to Geelong were made in 1898, with three separate companies vying for the r ...
.
[Public Records Office: Agency VA 1002: State Electricity Commission of Victoria](_blank)
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 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 and the Cerberean Range. Their findings were then submitted to the
Parliament of Victoria for funding, with the more cost effective project
approved in 1922,
and the
Rubicon Hydroelectric Scheme 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 electric ...
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 and opened the first of many
brown coal 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 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 unit ...
in March 2017, with only six months’ notice, wholesale prices in Victoria were up 85% on 2016, according to the
Australian Energy Regulator, 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 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, 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: Loy Yang 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 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 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 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
The Anglesea Power Station was a brown coalpowered thermal power station located at Anglesea, in Victoria, Australia. The station had one steam turbine, with a capacity of . It was operated by Alcoa of Australia and supplied almost 40% of the ...
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 unit ...
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 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 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 Bogong may refer to:
*Bogong moth, a large Australian moth species
*Bogong, Victoria, a locality in Victoria, Australia
*Bogong High Plains, a region of Victoria, Australia
*County of Bogong, one of the 37 counties of Victoria, Australia
*Mount Bogo ...
, 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
The Snowy Mountains Scheme or Snowy scheme is a hydroelectricity and irrigation in Australia, irrigation complex in south-east Australia. The Scheme consists of sixteen major dams; nine power stations; two pumping stations; and of tunnels, pipe ...
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 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, 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 briquettes 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 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
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 ...
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 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
The Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria (G&FC) was a government-owned monopoly supplier of household gas in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1950 and took over two of the three main gas utilities in Melbourne – the Metropolitan Gas C ...
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. The plant opened in 1956 and used the German Lurgi process Lurgi can refer to:
* Lurgi AG : The German Chemical and construction company
* the Lurgi process for making gas from carbonaceous fuel under high pressure
* Lurgi generator - a device used to produce gas from coal (see Gasification
Gasificati ...
to produce gas that was transferred to Melbourne via a high pressure gas pipeline.[Technology in Australia 1788-1988](_blank)
/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 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 fac ...
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](_blank)
/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
Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...
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 was established in 1997. In 1994, the Kennett Government privatised 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
TXU or txu may refer to:
*TXU Corporation (formerly "Texas Utilities") a USA group companies
**TXU Energy, energy generation subsidiary of TXU Corp.
**TXU Energi, subsidiary of TXU Europe, formerly "The Energy Company"
*txu, ISO:639 code for the K ...
. 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) 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 t ...
, 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.[ SP AusNet changed its name to ]AusNet Services
AusNet Services (previously SP AusNet) is an Australian energy delivery services business, owning and operating more than $11 billion of electricity and gas network assets. It is a privately held, and was formerly listed on the Australian Securi ...
in August 2014. In September 2014, Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Group 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 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 operated Casino field was discovered in 2002, and started production in 2006. In 2002 Woodside Petroleum 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](_blank)
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, Otway and Bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range:
** Bass (instrument), including:
** Acoustic bass gui ...
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, 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
AusNet Services (previously SP AusNet) is an Australian energy delivery services business, owning and operating more than $11 billion of electricity and gas network assets. It is a privately held, and was formerly listed on the Australian Securi ...
— 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 t ...
, 19.9% by State Grid Corporation of China 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 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 t ...
. 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, Cooma, Nowra 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
CK Infrastructure Holdings Limited (CKI), is the largest publicly listed infrastructure company in Hong Kong with diversified investments in energy infrastructure, transportation Infrastructure, water Infrastructure and infrastructure related ...
(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 demand[APLNG 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, 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 (Australia), Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, with sales totalling 12% of the ...
. The retailers issue bills to its customers based on gas usage information provided by the distributors.[
The ]Tasmanian Gas Pipeline
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
was constructed and commissioned by Duke Energy in 2002. It is a submarine and onshore gas pipeline 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.[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 is piped from the Iona Gas Plant
The Iona Gas Plant is a natural gas processing and underground storage facility at Waarre near Port Campbell in the Australian state of Victoria. The Iona Gas Plant is owned by Lochard Energy.
The Iona Gas Plant is on the site of the Iona Gas Fie ...
near Port Campbell, 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
The SEA Gas pipeline ''(South East Australia Gas pipeline)'' is a 687 km natural gas pipeline from the Iona Gas Plant near Port Campbell in Victoria to the Pelican Point Power Station at Port Adelaide. It connects Adelaide's gas supply to s ...
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)
APA Group is a company in Australia which owns and operates natural gas and electricity assets. It is Australia's largest natural gas infrastructure business.
It was founded in 2000, when Corporate spin-off, spun off from the Australian Gas ...
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, 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 fac ...
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.
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 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. 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
* 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
* 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)