The Australian government is mounting every effort to persuade AGL Energy to sell its ageing Liddell power plant to Hong Kong-owned Alinta Energy. In a bid to counteract management opposition to the deal, the country’s energy minister has spoken to individual board members, while Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has contacted AGL’s chairman. While both the competition watchdog and the Australian Energy Market Operator have argued that more competition in the NSW energy market would be beneficial to consumers, the federal government has no power to force AGL to do anything with the asset it acquired from the state government in 2014. But it appears that the deal will not go ahead.
The Australian government is mounting every effort to persuade AGL Energy to sell its ageing Liddell power plant to Hong Kong-owned Alinta Energy. In a bid to counteract management opposition to the deal, the country’s energy minister has spoken to individual board members, while Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has contacted AGL’s chairman. But it appears that the deal will not go ahead.