Closing Liddel power station and investing in renewables looks to be hugely profitable for AGL, not because they reduce the cost of generation, but because the subsidies they get for renewable power, and the vastly increased electricity prices from operating an unreliable sytem guarantee a river of gold for decades.

“If you can combine sanctimonious rectitude with capitalist greed, you are absolutely superb, you are saving the planet while raping the population, gouging is done for a morally higher purpose.”

Central Petroleum chief Richard Cottee has delivered an extra­ordinary attack on AGL Energy’s plans to close the Liddell power station in the NSW Hunter Valley in 2022, accusing the power giant of pursuing higher power prices to drive up profit under the guise of a clean energy agenda.

AGL chief executive Andy Vesey has committed to provide to Malcolm Turnbull by December 12 a detailed plan to replace Liddell with reliable non-coal generation, after the Prime Minister demanded the energy boss take a request to his board to ­extend the life of Liddell or sell it to someone who would. Instead, they plan to replace it with a mixture of gas power, ­renewables, demand management and batteries.

“With Liddell closing, the volatility of the electricity market will increase — there will be more ‘vol. events’,” he told a Sydney Mining Club lunch yesterday. He described these “vol. events” as when power prices spiked to more than $250 per MWh, saying that the power system was designed to deal with only three or four of these a year. When power sold for the upper National Electricity Market limit of $14,000 per MWh, it was the equivalent of selling gas for $1500 per gigajoule, he said. If you can increase the number of vol. events by decreasing reliable generation, you will have a very profitable model.