The company joins other potential bidders such as Wesfarmers, Envestra and the Australian Pipeline Trust bidding for Duke's Australian assets, which analysts say could fetch around $1.5 billion.

Alinta chief executive Bob Browning said that the company is interested in going after the entire portfolio of Duke.

"They've got three relatively new pipelines with some growth potential… the power plants are underpinned by long-term contracts - that entire portfolio appeals to us," he said.

The Duke portfolio consists of 2300 km of natural gas pipelines, including the key 795 km Eastern Gas and Tasmanian Gas Pipelines, as well as 450 megawatts of power generation capacity.

"We're still working through the financial models with Macquarie and going through all of the assumptions very carefully," Browning said.

Browning refused to speculate on the pricing before the close of bids on March 12, although he did say that the company was on the acquisition trail and would be willing to offload its investment in Uecomm to buy more.