The NSW Government has announced that it wishes to sell off the three electricity retailers it owns – Country Energy, EnergyAustralia and Integral Energy – to the highest bidder. Last week’s announcement is an attempt to “test the water” to ensure that in the current economic environment there are enough potential bidders for the assets. The Government said it intends to keep in place existing retail price controls until at least 2013 and to provide employees with their existing job guarantees. This is clearly aimed at sweetening the deal for consumers and unions but will no doubt significantly reduce the price any potential bidder would be willing to pay. A similar sell-off was attempted last year but failed due to union and political pressure and resulted in the departure of former Premier Morris Iemma and Treasurer Michael Costa.