The potential buyers are said to be The Australian Gas Light Company, Hong Kong generator CLP Power, New Zealand’s Contact Energy and state-owned Meridian Energy, Australia’s government-owned Snowy Hydro and Origin Energy, and British generator International Power.
Southern Hydro is being sold by Alliant Energy (Australia), a unit of US power giant Alliant Energy Corp, and has been valued by industry sources at up to US$450M. The company has 10 power stations in the state of Victoria totalling 500MW. That is just 6% of the state’s generating capacity but hydro’s flexibility is attractive in the market, where limited reserve capacity has sent peak prices soaring.
