Grok Ventures, owned by Australian tech billionaire and green...

Grok Ventures, owned by Australian tech billionaire and green activist Mike Cannon-Brookes, is making good progress in talks with AGL Energy (AGL) to overhaul the power company's board and management, Grok's chief executive said on Wednesday.

Management at AGL, Australia's biggest electricity producer, stepped down last week after bowing to pressure from investors led by top shareholder Grok to scrap plans to split into a coal-fired generation business and an energy retailer.

Instead, shareholders are pushing AGL to speed up closure of its coal plants, and the company's board has said it would run a strategic review on the company's future.

"We need to do this fast," Grok Chief Executive Jeremy Kwong-Law told a Credit Suisse energy conference in Sydney on Wednesday. "We don't want the company to be doing a strategic review where the board doesn't actually have a mandate to go and do that."

Grok earlier this year teamed up with Brookfield Asset Management in a A$5.4 billion ($3.9 billion) bid for AGL, which the board rejected.

Kwong-Law said AGL needs a strong independent chairman who will put it on a path aligned with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and find people who understand how to build a renewables business.

"We're having a good discussion with the board in terms of who those people are," Kwong-Law told a Credit Suisse energy conference in Sydney on Wednesday.

"Our plan is very much to help the company transition, engage with the board, engage with other shareholders who want to participate in this and drive the business forward," he said.

AGL needs to focus on making the best use of its customers' rooftop solar and battery assets, using artificial intelligence to manage power flows, turning itself into more of a software company, he said.

Any "crazy talk" about selling assets, even if a fat premium was offered, would not make sense until AGL has a clear view on its strategy, its asset base and management team, he said.

AGL declined to comment on its talks with Grok. ($1 = 1.3843 Australian dollars)