The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) announced yesterday it has accepted an electricity retailer authorisation application from Hanwha Energy Retail Australia (Hanwha ERA).
Hanwha ERA is part of the Hanwha Group, which includes solar panel/cell manufacturer Hanwha Q-Cells – the company that is hauling several other solar manufacturers before the courts in the USA, Australia and Germany over alleged patent infringements.
Hanwha Energy, established in 2007, operates in a number of other locations around the world and is currently building retail operations in Australia, the USA (Texas) and Germany. Hanwha ERA was established in December last year and its registered address is at NorthPoint Tower, North Sydney; just half a kilometre away from Hanwha Q-Cells’ Australian head office.
Hanwha ERA’s mission:
“.. is to build Australia’s first new energy, digital gentailer that will deliver brilliantly simple solutions that engage our customers for a better life.”
Hanwha ERA intends initially launching retail electricity products in the NSW residential market, with view to expanding into other National Electricity Market (NEM) regions1 and bundling retail electricity with rooftop solar power and home battery storage – so it sounds like the company will be gearing up to be a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) operator.
Illustrating its intended level of customer commitment was this image in the application:
It’s possibly the first time a depiction of a toddler being thrown into the air at a solar farm within a love heart has been included in an application for Electricity Retailer Authorisation in Australia.
Anyhow, while initially targeting small electricity customers, Hanwha ERA says it will also subsequently move into the small medium enterprise (SME), commercial and industrial retail markets.
The company plans to kick off market operations at the beginning of October this year – assuming it acquires the necessary approvals. That’s less than 6 months away, so it has quite a job ahead of it.
“With the right strategy and structure together with the right people, leadership and culture I believe we can quickly establish Hanwha ERA as the market leader in the new energy environment,” says Hanwha ERA Managing Director Andrew Butler.
The Australian Energy Regulator is seeking submissions from interested stakeholders on Hanwha ERA’s application.
Hanwha Group, based in South Korea, is Fortune Global 500 company with revenues of more than US$60 billion in 2018 and total shareholder equity of over US$37 billion.
Footnotes
- The NEM is comprised of Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania – but Victoria isn’t mentioned as one of Hanwha ERA’s intended retail jurisdictions in the application ↩
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“The NEM is comprised of Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Tasmania” Don’t forget Victoria, (even though they deserve to be ostracised for inflicting VFL/AFL on the rest of the nation).
“With the right strategy and structure together with the right people, leadership and culture I believe we can quickly establish Hanwha ERA as the market leader in the new energy environment,” If the “new energy environment” is defined as the production of hot air, this guy might just be on to something
Thanks for pointing out I omitted Victoria, fixed.
Goddammit! I’ve specifically told people not to substitute toddlers for drones when inspecting solar panels!