Shell Australia’s $617 million pitch for electricity trader and generator ERM Power stands as the most tangible expression yet of the transition mission that the local outpost of the petroleum super major set for itself more than three years ago.

Back in June 2017, in a move that foreshadowed co-ordinated global ambitions in electricity only recently fully enunciated by the legendary mother ship, Shell Australia revealed its strategic hand by establishing an energy trading business in Melbourne.