The Sydney County Council was formed in 1935 to produce electricity and operate the electricity network in a number of municipalities in metropolitan Sydney. Unlike other New South Wales county councils, which were voluntary associations of local councils to undertake local government activities permitted or required of them by the Local Governnment Act 1919 , Sydney County Council was established under a separate piece of legislation by the state government to perform the electricity distribution and streetlighting operations of the local government areas concerned. On its establishment it assumed control of the Electricity Department of the Sydney City Council, which was already supplying electricity to other municipalities. In 1952, the SCC lost most its electricity generation functions to the Electricity Commission of New South Wales and retained only its distribution functions. The SCC was merged with other municipal county councils in 1990 to form Sydney Electricity.
History
In 1904, the Electricity Department of the Municipal Council of Sydney, one of the two main authorities responsible for electricity generation at the time, began to generate electricity for streetlights in the Sydney CBD. Pyrmont Power Station began operations in 1904, as the Sydney Electric Lighting Station, and was expanded over time. Construction of the Bunnerong Power Station began in 1926, and when Bunnerong 'A' Station was completed in 1937 it had a capacity of 175 MW, making it the largest power station in the State, and further expansion brought its capacity to 375 MW, making Bunnerong the largest power station in the southern hemisphere. In 1935, the Sydney County Council was formed and assumed ownership of the Electricity Department of the Sydney City Council including its power stations, which by then supplied electricity for domestic, commercial and community uses in addition to the original purpose of supply for street lighting. After the Electricity Commission of New South Wales was created in 1950 to manage electricity generation and distribution across the state, the SCC's Bunnerong and Pyrmont Power Stations were transferred to the Electricity Commission in 1952; and the SCC became an electricity distributor only. In 1989, the state government legislated to abolish the SCC as well as the electricity supply county councils formed under the Local Government Act, and in the case of the SCC, formed Sydney Electricity, a government controlled corporation, by merging it with the Brisbane Water, Mackellar and St George County Councils. In 1996, Sydney Electricity was merged with Orion Energy to form EnergyAustralia, a government-controlled enterprise. On 2 March 2011, EnergyAustralia changed its name to Ausgrid. The retail business of EnergyAustralia and its name had been sold to Hong-Kong listed TRUenergy in 2010, which in 2012 changed its name to EnergyAustralia.
Badge and motto
In 1936 the new Council adopted a badge for general use and on the Common Seal. A competition was conducted both among staff and the general public, with the final design chosen including the sun to depict heat, the classical torch to depict light and the figure of the horse to depict power. However the original motto of this design, the Latin "Imperium in populo ex populo", was not considered a well-constructed Latin phrase by experts, and Professor Frederick Augustus Todd, Professor of Latin and Dean of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Sydney, suggested instead that the motto be "Peractis Postera Praestent". This was accepted by the Council at its 1 September 1936 meeting, with the SCC General Manager, Forbes Mackay, noting: "I consider this motto suitably expresses what I believe to be the aim of the council: to give increasingly better service to the public that it serves."
