State Electricity Commission of Victoria

The State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV, ECV or SEC) was a government monopolistic electricity generation, transmission and supply utility operating in Victoria, Australia. Control of the SECV was by a Board of Commissioners appointed by the Victorian Government, following the example of the Victorian Railways, and in contrast to the Departmental control that managed Australian postal and telephone services.

When electricity generation first became practical, the main uses were lighting of public buildings, street lighting and later, electric trams. As a result, electricity generation and distribution tended to be carried out by municipalities, by private companies under franchise to the councils, or by joint private-public bodies.

Prior to the establishment of SECV, electricity was generated and distributed by a number of private and municipal generator and distribution companies. The main municipal-owned power station in Victoria was operated by the Melbourne City Council, who generated electricity from its Spencer Street Power Station 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 which was established in the 1880s and operated under franchise arrangements with a number of other municipal distributors. The final major generator of electricity was the Victorian Railways who operated the Newport Power Station, for the supply of electricity to Melbourne's suburban trains. These early generators all relied on a fuel supply provided by the strike prone black coal industry of New South Wales.

Victoria has large reserves of brown coal located in the Latrobe Valley, to the east of Melbourne. Brown coal has a low energy density due to the high moisture content and would have been uneconomic to transport into Melbourne, but advances in electrical transmission technology meant that electricity could be generated beside the fuel source and transmitted to the consumer. Following an overseas tour in 1911, Herbert Reah Harper, engineer with the Melbourne City Council Electricity Supply Department, recognised the potential for Victorian Brown Coal, after seeing Germany's use, and recommended the establishment of a public utility on the lines of the Ontario Hydro Electricity. He was subsequently appointed to the Victorian Government Brown Coal Advisory Committee (chaired by Department of Mines director Hyman Herman), which reported in September 1917. It recommended the establishment of an Electricity Commission to develop the brown coal reserves and construct a power station and transmission lines. In December 1918, a Bill was passed to establish a Commission with both regulatory and investigative powers, including taking over the enforcement of the existing Electric Light and Power Act, which regulated all electricity generators and distributors.

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