Consumers to pay more if Brookfield buys Origin, ACCC told

afr.com:

Victorian households and businesses would pay higher prices for electricity if Brookfield is allowed to take over Origin Energy because there would be less competition in supply, the competition watchdog has been told.

The view from junior renewables and battery developer Syncline Energy directly counters the Canadian giant’s argument that the $18.7 billion takeover, if allowed to proceed, would deliver public benefits that easily outweigh competition concerns.

AusNet, owned by Brookfield, hosts big batteries on its grid. 

“Brookfield has framed the debate as a trade-off between competition policy and the energy transition. This is false,” Syncline managing director Phil Galloway, a former CS First Boston banker and BHP executive, told the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in the most critical submission yet on the proposed mega-deal.

Mr Galloway said that instead of accelerating the transition to lower-carbon energy as Brookfield has argued, the proposed takeover could slow the transition because innovation and competition in emerging areas such as grid services and firming would be stifled.

“The public detriment outweighs any public benefit from the proposed acquisition,“he wrote in the submission, released by the ACCC on Tuesday.

Syncline’s submission is the first to be released that openly objects to the transaction, although major supplier AGL Energy underlined in its submission the importance of fair and transparent access to networks. The takeover would result in common ownership of the batteries and grid services provided by AusNet, which is already owned by Brookfield, and Origin’s proposed battery project in Victoria, Syncline said, noting that consideration of the asset overlap between the