Portfolio — 10 July 2026

The Minister for Energy and Resources, Ms D'Ambrosio, made two significant announcements on 10 July targeting workforce development and energy storage infrastructure across Victoria. The first extended the Electrification Skills Training Program, offering fully funded training places for EV charger installation and free up-skilling covering plumbing, electrical work, switchboard upgrades, reverse-cycle air-conditioning and efficient hot-water systems [TA-260710-vicmed-2361a34da8c6].

Solar Victoria delivers the program in partnership with TAFE Gippsland, Holmesglen and the National Communications and Electrical Association. More than 6,100 workers have already been trained, and the program is projected to support up to 14,300 energy-sector jobs statewide.

The second announcement centres on the Latrobe Valley, where the SEC Energy Works project will deliver Australia's first 20-megawatt compressed-air battery [TA-260710-vicmed-a7f6d37eab8d]. Built by Energy Dome, the installation can store three times the energy of a comparable large lithium-ion unit and will create up to 66 construction and operational jobs. The project is embedded within a broader renewable-energy hub that incorporates an SEC Apprenticeship Academy, which will deliver 2,000 electrical trade places over four years [TA-260710-vicmed-fb0ad5dbc8e7].

That apprenticeship pipeline sits alongside — and directly reinforces — the skills program announced in the same release window, giving the two announcements a coherent workforce-to-infrastructure logic: trained workers filling roles in projects the state itself is building.

The Latrobe Valley focus carries clear regional-development intent. The region's transition from coal-dependent employment to renewable energy roles has been an enduring policy challenge, and the SEC Energy Works project positions the government's state-owned energy company as a direct employer and skills anchor in that transition. The ministerial media releases frame the combined effect as keeping electricity prices among the lowest in the country while delivering billions of dollars in regional wages — a dual cost-of-living and economic-development message the government has used consistently across its energy portfolio.