Grok wants AGL to serve its ‘green’ customers as coal power fizzles out

Fresh from stopping AGL hiving off its troubled coal-fired power stations Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures says the company can make money servicing the needs of its solar and battery-loving customers, ditching its old business model for good.

Grok Ventures chief executive Jeremy Kwong-Law on Wednesday said that AGL’s now canned demerger proposal, which resulted in the departure of its chief executive, chairman, and two other directors, was a “crazy idea” based on a misunderstanding of what a future power generator and retailer business looked like.

“People are putting solar and battery at home, and they’re creating the duck curve which is hammering the middle of the day ability of coal-fired power stations to dispatch at profitable rates,” he told the Credit Suisse Australia energy forum in Sydney.

“You need to think about your consumers as not just consumers but also producers and how they can soak up energy and also deliver energy back to the grid.”

Given Cannon-Brookes made his fortune with software company Atlassian, Kwong-Law wants AGL to push for a similar revenue structure, creating a business with “good margins [and] sticky customers that don’t change 20 per cent a year because Origin has come up with a 22 per cent discount and not your 21 per cent discount offer.”

Kwong-Law added that Grok Ventures, which owns an 11 per cent stake in AGL, was having fruitful discussions with the present AGL board about who should be shortlisted for the four vacancies.

“Shareholders wanted a Paris aligned goal, new management that can execute on that path, and we want the company to stay together,” he said.

Kwong-Law wants an independent chair strong enough to corral a board together, has expertise in developing renewable energy projects and someone who understands the “behind the meter opportunity” of using AGL’s millions of customers as power suppliers as well as consumers.

“We also need someone who can provide an insight on how you go from a fossil business into a renewables business,” he said.