The Mound - #23 - The SEC Strikes Back!
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The newly-revived SEC was registered as a company last week, less than 24 hours before its 10-year strategy was revealed to conference-goers in Victoria.
On its own this might be the least interesting factoid in corporate history, but this is really just one piece of the State Electricity Commission’s rather pear-shaped puzzle.
For context, the SEC was first formed in 1918 to make use of Victoria’s brown coal supply and to free us from our reliance on imported fuels. Seventy years later and facing a pretty stark deficit, the Kennett government then privatised the whole network, raising about $4.4 billion in the process, improving performance, and ultimately lowering prices for customers.
In its new guise, the SEC exists to accelerate the state’s transition to renewable energy. Politically, though, Victorian Labour’s promise to revive the SEC was something of a threat to the private players in the space, a signal of its intention to turn this car around if youse don’t start behaving back there!
Today the SEC owns Yallourn Power Station (responsible for about 15% of the state’s energy, to be shut down by 2028), the right to buy the mothballed Hazelwood Power Station from Engie next year, and a small number of wind, solar, and hydro stations across the state. As pointed out in the AFR, they also have a stock of branded t-shirts, some tote bags, and at least a fistful of orange jelly beans.
Perhaps the worst part of all this is the name they’ve landed on for the body responsible for accrediting clean energy courses: the SEC Centre of Training Excellence, which honestly reads like it’s been lifted from the facade of a concrete monstrosity in PyongYang.
Well I’m just being catty now - but we’ve had our hearts broken so many times that you’ll forgive me for noticing a red flag when one appears. With the hasty ASIC registration and board advisors dropping out left and right, this version of the SEC has all the tell-tale signs of a Governmental flop.
Shame, for a second there I really felt hopeful about this one. For just a second there I thought the SEC might’ve been the one to take us away from all this, to make an honest state of me. But alas, this is just the honeymoon period and the SEC is just another manic-pixie-dream-commission. Oh well, what a shame it has to end.
Or does it?
The above insults - valid as they are - bely what the Government has so far achieved with just three letters and a logo. The existing, private providers have been put on notice. We’re all talking about upskilling and reskilling. We’re making gravy, baby! Sure, they could move on to the execution stage, fail and provide the privates the satisfaction. Or the SEC could remain as it is: a threat.
I, for one, rather like the idea of our Government going around and registering businesses where the incumbents refuse to price reasonably. Think airlines, think locksmiths, think picture framers for Christ’s sake! These companies might see it for the empty threat it is - but, to be honest, I don’t recall my father ever actually turning the car around. Mum never sold my toys - and my parents had no follow-through when it came to putting me up for adoption. But here I am, a reasonably priced adult.
Faster, sexier, and a whole lot cheaper than regulation, the summoning of ghost competitors could provide the Government with a lever they never actually have to use, the ability to haunt the halls of commerce and to scare corporations straight - so long as the public can keep their prying eyes and their need for details to themselves.
In disappointment - and in honour of this Halloween - I now realise the SEC might’ve gotten away with it… if it weren't for you meddling kids!
You’re welcome, Australia
