| Ausgrid | |
| Type: | Private |
| Predecessor: | EnergyAustralia |
| Location City: | Sydney |
| Location Country: | Australia |
| Area Served: | Sydney, Central Coast, Hunter Region |
| Key People: | Marc England (CEO)[1] |
| Industry: | Utility |
| Services: | Electricity distribution |
| Owner: | AustralianSuper and IFM Investors - 50.4%Government of New South Wales - 49.6% |
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, Australia.[2] 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, and the remainder renamed Ausgrid.
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.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5]
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,[6] Penshurst[7] [8] and East Lindfield[9] [10] protested against proposed electricity infrastructure[11] 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.[12]
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.