AAP

The NSW Government’s $5.3 billion electricity sell-off is a “mad dash for cash” carried out with “appalling” timing, says a former director of a state-owned energy company.

Tony Maher resigned from the board of Eraring on Tuesday in the wake of Origin Energy’s purchase of the firm’s electricity trading rights.

It was part of a wider deal which saw the small retailers Integral Energy and Country Energy also sold to Origin Energy.

EnergyAustralia was bought by Hong Kong-listed TRUenergy, which also bought the right to trade the output generated by Delta Electricity power stations west of Sydney and three development sites including one at the Mt Piper Extension near Lithgow, and two at Marulan.

Overall the deal has netted the state government $5.3 billion, an amount heavily criticised for being poor value by the state opposition.

It led to the resignation of eight of the 11 board members of Eraring and Delta Electricity.

“The politics of it (the sale) were dreadful. It was just a mad dash for cash,” the outgoing Mr Maher told ABC Radio on Wednesday morning.

“I do have a view that it was a dud deal.”

He said the timing was “appalling” because of uncertainty about upcoming carbon pricing.

State opposition leader Barry O’Farrell said the sale had “all the hallmarks of a banana republic”, and did not achieve good value.

“It’s unprecedented, unprecedented in the history of this state for this many directors of state energy companies to resign en masse,” he told ABC Radio.

“And they’ve resigned en masse in protest at a rush deal, a bad deal and their concern as directors of these companies that a proper return on asset is not being realised.”