United Energy is a Victorian energy network that distributes electricity across east and south-east Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula to more than 640,000 customers, 90% of which are residential. Its network includes 209,000 poles and over 13,000 kilometres of wires. Electricity is received via 78 sub-transmission lines at 46 zone stations, where it is transformed from sub-transmission voltages to distribution voltages.[1]
The company was owned by the DUET Group, which also owned Multinet Gas, which distributes gas in Melbourne's inner eastern suburbs to middle-eastern Victoria. DUET also owned the Western Australian Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline, the sole gas conduit for Perth and coastal Western Australia.[2]
In April 2017, Hong Kong–based Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI) proposed to acquire the DUET Group[2] for A$7.4 billion, which was approved by FIRB later that month.[3] CKI also owns CitiPower in Melbourne, Powercor in western Melbourne and western Victoria, and Envestra, which distributes gas through much of Victoria, as well as Queensland and South Australia.[2] After the acquisition, CKI owns three out of five electricity distributors and two out of three gas distributors in Victoria.[2]