The Victorian government will break away from national electricity supply rules, hoping to short-circuit the bureaucracy keeping the state reliant on a 1960s-era energy grid.

The state Labor government says it will walk away from sections of the National Electricity Rules, leaving Victoria free to move quickly to upgrade obsolete electricity lines and fast-track projects such as giant batteries.

Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio says the state’s ageing "transmission" equipment - poles, wires and other infrastructure that moves power around - is preventing lower-cost clean energy from wind farms and other renewable projects from getting to homes and businesses.

Loading

She says the state cannot break its dependence on the ageing and unreliable coal-fired generators of the Latrobe Valley without new transmission equipment but that upgrade efforts have been bogged down for years in some cases in the Australian Energy Market Commission’s processes.