SEC’s work is helping ensure Victorian households and businesses continue to have the power they need as the energy system transitions away from coal-fired generation.
This includes working with the industry to invest in wind and solar electricity generation and energy storage.
We are also exploring investment opportunities in new and emerging technologies that improve efficiency and will help Victoria maintain reliable and affordable energy in the long-term.
Guiding principles
Our activities are underpinned by three guiding principles:
Public purpose
Provide broader benefits to the Victorian community and consumers,
including:
- improving energy affordability and reliability
- public ownership and control of a portfolio of strategic energy assets, with returns reinvested into renewable energy projects for public benefit
- creating local jobs and maximising local capability
- supporting underserved customer cohorts.
Market enablement
Operate in a way that accelerates the energy transition, by:
- bringing capital to the transition task, additional to that which would otherwise be delivered
- maintaining private investor confidence in the Victorian energy market
- catalysing private sector investment
- creating and growing new markets, both for SEC and private investors
- supporting the development of a workforce equipped with the required
skills - sharing lessons learned where appropriate.
Sustainable financial returns
Earn a financial return across the portfolio that:
- enables us to generate cash flow to cover our operating costs within an
acceptable timeframe - meets risk-adjusted target rates of return, enabling us to reinvest returns
in more generation and storage on behalf of the Victorian people - meets the requirements of public non-financial corporation status.
How we invest
SEC assesses its investments against criteria that enable us to navigate market uncertainty while remaining anchored to our guiding principles.
These criteria help ensure our projects achieve sustainable returns and provide broader benefits to the Victorian public, while enabling more generation and storage to be built, further accelerating the energy transition.
Our role as a market participant
SEC complements the growing renewable energy market by working and partnering with industry to identify projects that will deliver generation and storage capacity, jobs and value for Victorians.
Over time, we will investigate longer-term supply options, such as securing rights for long duration energy storage, and other renewable firming capabilities.
Our flexibility supports us to meet emerging industry needs and take advantage of new technologies.