It is building a peaking gas plant in South Australia and looking at a gas import terminal in Victoria but sees no immediate opportunity to invest further in the energy space.
In some respects, government investment is doing its work for it.
Vocus has a nationwide fibre optic network and AGL thinks the future will see consumers wanting to buy their communications and energy needs from the one seller.
AGL thinks the answer is providing roof top solar, batteries and home internet connections.
In this respect it will become a new competitor to Telstra which is limited to the communications part of the business and of course could become a behemoth in energy retailing.
Data centres are huge users of energy and AGL has the answer here as well.
Vocus has had integration issues and AGL has just spent $450 million revamping its internal digital systems so it sees upside in providing Vocus customers with its network.
By owning the infrastructure directly AGL sees the chance to manage the cycles better than state and federal governments have managed with the electricity grid to date.
The fibre network itself is a growth option for the gas and electricity company.
This is how AGL sees the plan but its early days and the ACCC is sure to take an interest in the deal as due diligence proceeds.
The distributed energy sector has a new behemoth in the making.
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AGL has seen the disruption in the traditional energy market due to the explosion in renewables which explains its interest in the $3 billion Vocus investment.