There will be no "strong-arming" of AGL to sell the Liddell power station, but Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he wants to see it stay open until 2025.
Tony Abbott called on the government to nationalise the NSW-based coal-fired power station because electricity is an essential service.
"There has been a lot of jawboning of AGL but perhaps it is the time for strong-arming because we just cannot afford to lose Liddell," Mr Abbott told 2GB on Monday.
AGL doesn't want to sell the power station, which it expects to close in 2022.
Mr Turnbull wants it stay open until 2025, when Snowy Hydro 2.0 is online, to ensure there is no gap in power availability.
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"This talk about strong-arming and nationalising assets, that's not the way we operate," the prime minister told Miranda Devine Live.
"Nationalising assets was what the Liberal party was founded to stop governments doing."
Mr Turnbull is encouraging AGL to sell the power station to Alinta, in order to keep downward pressure on power prices.
Anti-coal protesters followed Mr Abbott on his Pollie Pedal charity ride through Victoria's coal-producing Latrobe Valley, with Voices of the Valley president Wendy Farmer telling him to stop treating her community like a political football.
"We want renewables: solar, hydro," she told reporters.
"We don't need new coal-fired power stations."
