 Brown coal has a low energy density due to the high moisture content and would have been uneconomic to transport to Melbourne.However, advances in electrical transmission technology allowed electricity to be generated near the fuel source and transmitted to the consumer.Following an overseas tour in 1911, Herbert Reah Harper, engineer with the Melbourne City Council Electricity Supply Department, recognised the potential for Victorian brown coal, after seeing Germany's use, and recommended the establishment of a public utility on the lines of the Ontario Hydro Electricity.