TIME will tell whether the Victorian government's shock decision this week to revive its moribund State Electricity Commission becomes a pivotal moment in the transformation of the National Electricity Market, or whether it will be forgotten as a footnote to a rush of changes being introduced in reaction to an alarming increase in energy costs.
But the fact that a state government is even talking about the revival of an old-style electricity commission betrays a growing loss in confidence in the existing management of the grid.
Governments still own a sizeable chunk of Australia's power system. Snowy Hydro is federally owned and Queensland never sold its state-owned power stations.
NSW still owns 49.6 per cent of the "poles and wires" company Ausgrid, and billions of taxpayer dollars are being offered to stimulate the new era of renewable energy generation and storage.
But the dominant narrative since the privatisation era began in the 1980s has been of the private sector delivering "more efficient" power than governments were capable of.
Vales Point on southern Lake Macquarie stayed in government hands until 2015, when the Coalition state government controversially sold it to energy entrepreneurs Trevor St Baker and Brian Flannery for $1 million.
It proved a windfall purchase for its owners, who are now selling the ageing station to a private Czech company, Sev.en, which bought a half share in the Millmerran and Callide power stations in Queensland in 2019.
As public companies and investment funds spooked by environmental and social corporate governance concerns get out of coal, other players are moving in.
Vales Point has big environmental legacies including its massive lakeside ash dams.
Opponents to the sale have criticised Sev.en for its environmental track record at home, fearing the community will be left to bear the costs of a cleanup whenever Vales is eventually decommissioned.
These are legitimate concerns. So are the continuing impacts the power station - supplying up to 11 per cent of the state's power - may be having on its surrounding environment.
But if the power transition is going as badly awry as increasingly seems the case, then the first task for whatever government is involved will be to keep the lights on.
The "energy wars" may have ended, but the real battle has only just begun.
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