Will privatising Electricity drive prices up or down?

It now seems almost certain that NSW Premier Mike Baird is planning the sale of NSW’s electricity transmission network, or at least some of it for now.

Premier Baird will take a 49 per cent sale of the state’s $30 billion electricity network to the next election, according to the Daily Telegraph.

In Queensland we’ve seen similar moves with the Government announcing they will allow private sector investment in power distributors, Energex, Ergon and Powerlink.

The big question for everyone is will privatisation drive prices up or down?

Unsurprisingly the NSW and Queensland governments argues that power bills will be cheaper as a result of privatisation, with Premier Baird citing Victoria as a clear case where it has lowered electricity costs.

While the Opposition leader in NSW John Robertson opposes the selling of poles and wires arguing that prices will rise and NSW will lose revenue.

The jury is still out on privatisation with staunch advocates both for and against it.

In NSW we’ve seen state-owned networks splurge spending billions of dollars over investing in infrastructure or “gold-plating” their electricity networks, which have driven prices up in recent years.

While it has also been argued that privatisation has caused no benefits for consumers with electricity price rises highest in states with privatised power networks.

So where does it leave us? Only time will tell what privatisation really means for NSW and Queensland.

What do you think? Will privatisation drive prices up or down? CLICK Here to have your say on the FiftyUp Club forum.