Ausgrid is an
electricity distribution company which owns, maintains and operates the electrical networks supplying 1.8 million customers servicing more than 4 million people in Sydney, the
Central Coast and
Hunter regions of
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. It was formed in 2011 from the previously state-owned
energy retailer/distributor,
EnergyAustralia, when the retail division of the company, along with the EnergyAustralia brand, was sold by the
Government of New South Wales
The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the executive state government of New South Wales, Australia. The government comprises 11 portfolios, led by a ministerial department and supported by several agencies. Th ...
, and the remainder renamed Ausgrid.
Ownership
Ausgrid was wholly owned by the Government of New South Wales from 2011 to 2016. In 2016, the New South Wales Government offered the effective sale of a 50.4% stake in Ausgrid, through a 99-year lease.
Initial bidding was won by a consortium of
State Grid Corporation of China and
Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings. On 11 August 2016 the Federal Government intervened to block the proposal, citing national security concerns regarding foreign ownership of critical infrastructure.
In September 2016 the New South Wales Government instead accepted a bid from an Australian-based consortium of
AustralianSuper and
IFM Investors, for a sum of $16 billion.
History
Ausgrid has received numerous complaints and requests for better stakeholder management and consultation of the local community. Ausgrid was seen as forcing their network capacity increasing (and therefore profit increasing) projects onto local residential communities. Affected residents groups from the suburbs of
Leichhardt,
Penshurst
Penshurst is a historic village and civil parishes in England, civil parish located in a valley upon the northern slopes of the Weald, Kentish Weald, at the confluence of the River Medway and the River Eden, Kent, River Eden, within the Seveno ...
and
East Lindfield protested against proposed electricity infrastructure being installed in front of their residential homes without proper consultation or response to complaints by the community. The residents, after many urgent appeals to Ausgrid's former COO Trevor Armstrong and the former chairman Roger Massey-Green, had been given no other option to notify local MP's, the media, the
Environmental Protection Authority and other authorities to get action against Ausgrid.
Accusations were also made of Ausgrid "gold plating" its business at the expense of consumers to increase the price in privatisation. Ausgrid undertook the rapid replacement of its fleet of vehicles.
See also
*
Sydney County Council
References
External links
ausgrid.com.au
{{Authority control
Companies based in Sydney
Energy companies established in 2011
Government-owned companies of New South Wales
Electric power distribution network operators in Australia
Australian companies established in 2011
Privately held companies of Australia
Government-owned energy companies