Lights out, one more time

The AER has published yet another Retailer of Last Resort (RoLR) notice on 21 June 20232, this time for another iON Group retail energy brand, Sanctuary Energy.

A Retailer of Last Resort (RoLR) event has occurred in relation to Sanctuary Energy Pty Ltd ... in the National Electricity Market. Prior to the issue of this notice, Sanctuary Energy Pty Ltd was an authorised electricity retailer for the purposes of Part 5 of the NERL with the authorisation identification TE12036.

Although this does technically qualify as an RoLR event, Sanctuary Energy is reported to have zero retail customers in the most recent Quarterly Performance Report from AER, so there appears to be no practical impact on energy consumers.

It's been an extraordinary year for retail energy, and an extraordinarily challenging one for energy retailers.

This latest addition to the RoLR register makes it 10 retailers to have exited via RoLR since May 2022. The RoLR provision had only ever been triggered 5 times in the preceding six years.