Getting the genie back in the bottle

When it comes to electricity, there was a time when the genie was safely enclosed in the bottle.

Graduating electrical engineers melded into State Electricity Commissions, electricity infrastructure was basically a boring subject and, by many accounts, overpopulated with chief, deputy and middle management ‘cardigans’, all of whom had engineering backgrounds.

Privatisation took care of that. While state budgets were restored through electricity asset sales, budgets of citizens and, more lately, of businesses, began to be impacted by way of steadily increasing tariffs. Any notional taxation decrease through privatisation was being met by users paying more and more for electrical energy. As always, one individual’s profit is another’s expense.

Taking note of what the state and federal governments are promising, jawboning electricity companies, arguing among each other about renewables versus