The Australian federal government, Commonwealth, has plans to pay A$6 billion ($4.65 billion) for the full ownership of the Snowy Hydro company, buying out the New South Wales and Victorian governments.
The Australian government currently holds a stake of 13 percent in Snowy Hydro. From NSW, it will buy a stake of 58 percent for A$4.154 billion ($3.22 billion) and from Victoria, the federal government will acquire a stake of 29 percent for A$2.077 billion ($1.61 billion).
Snowy Hydro owns and operates 5.5 gigawatts of power generation capacity.
The agreement will enable the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro storage project to move ahead to a final investment decision to be taken by the independent Snowy board.
Snowy 2.0 will be an expansion of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, which has been designed to generate an additional capacity of 2 gigawatts to power nearly 500,000 homes at peak times. Currently, the Snowy Mountains Scheme is made up of nine hydroelectric power plants and 16 large dams.
