AGL Asks Court to Overturn Ruling on Power Prices

By Angela Macdonald-Smith

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- AGL Energy Ltd., Australia's biggest electricity and gas retailer, asked the Supreme Court of Queensland to overturn the regulator's calculation of the benchmark for setting retail power prices in the state.

The Queensland Competition Authority underestimated power retailers' costs when it set the benchmark retail cost index for the year ending June 2009, Sydney-based AGL said today in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.

The difference between the regulator's initial calculation of the index and a revision that used lower cost assumptions represents about A$9 million ($7.8 million) in sales for AGL, the utility said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net