Shannon Deery: Will Victoria’s renewable energy transition become the next Commonwealth Games moment?

Just weeks before the Commonwealth Games fell over, Victorians were told it was full steam ahead. Are they getting the same spin with the state’s troubled energy transition plan?

The state government’s hopes of establishing an offshore wind facility at the Port of Hastings were dashed.

Victoria’s plan to transition from fossil fuel electricity generation to renewable energy appears to be in a mess.

Legislation before parliament will set new offshore wind energy targets of at least two gigawatts by 2032, and increase the state’s target for renewable electrification from 50 per cent to 95 per cent by 2035.

But since the federal government dashed the state government’s hopes of establishing an offshore wind facility at the Port of Hastings, industry experts say those targets are all but impossible.

Jacinta Allan and her team insist they can still be met.

They point to noise out of Canberra last week that the government would work to help Victoria reach them.

But there’s little real detail around how our transition will meet the benchmark the government is setting for success.

Premier Jacinta Allan insists the renewable energy targets can still be met after the Port of Hastings setback. Picture: David Caird

Which is why it’s time for the government to come clean on its plan to get clean.

Just weeks before the Commonwealth Games fell over, we were told the event was full steam ahead.

And we were told that with the same chutzpah with which the government continues to sell its energy transition plan, including its promised SEC revival.

But, again, there is little detail.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto has repeatedly questioned whether the SEC was just an empty promise to help Labor win the 2022 election and if it, too, will go the same way as the Commonwealth Games.

There’s nothing to suggest the SEC revival wasn’t promised with the best of intentions, but any government insider will you it is going to be a tall ask.

The entire focus for the SEC seems to be to make it easier for households to electrify and get off gas.

Victoria is failing to keep up with the closure of traditional coal-fired power stations, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator, and in the meantime is trying to add additional demand to already scarce supply by incentivising the shift to electrification.

While the government scrambles to get its energy transition back on track, Victoria faces the prospect of more regular blackouts and higher energy costs, according to the latest forecasts.

The government has been explicit about what targets it wants to hit as part of its energy transition.

What we want to know is how it’s going to do that.