'If the price is high enough': AGL in pivotal position under Dutton’s nuclear plan
The ASX-listed gentailer strongly opposes the Opposition's nuclear policy, but Macquarie's utility analyst says it may hold all the cards if the Coalition wins power.
AGL Energy has already sharply dismissed opposition leader Peter Dutton's plans for nuclear facilities on sites it owns, but it may be compelled to at least listen if a future Coalition government made it an offer it could not refuse.
That's the view of Macquarie utilities analyst Ian Myles in the wake of Dutton's confirmation this week that Dutton's plan for nuclear power in Australia rests heavily on accessing two sites owned by the ASX-listed gentailer - the Liddell power station in the Hunter Valley which was closed last year, and the Loy Yang A power station in Victoria’s La Trobe Valley which is due to cease operating in the middle of next decade.
"AGL would be obliged to look at [an offer] from a commercial perspective. If the price is high enough and the government can pay for it to remediate the site, then [selling to the government] could be good from an AGL perspective," Myles told Capital Brief.
But Myles said any such consideration was purely hypothetical due to the number of "gateways" the Coalition would have to get through to make its nuclear energy aspirations a reality.
