‘Diabolical’ energy market claims Australia’s first community-owned electricity retailer
22 June 2022 at 4:28 pm
Enova Energy announced on Tuesday it had been placed into voluntary administration.
Australia’s first community-owned electricity retailer has fallen victim to the ongoing national energy crisis, announcing it has been placed into voluntary administration.
Enova Energy, which was established in 2016 as a social enterprise and built from the ground up with a vision to enable community-owned distributed renewable electricity generation and supply, said the current crisis had had an “unbearable” impact on its ability to operate.
The green energy provider, which focused on providing energy from renewable sources, has been unable to secure fixed pricing from 1 July after a deal with Diamond Energy lapsed, leaving it “fully exposed to severely inflated wholesale energy prices”.
Enova’s managing director Felicity Stening blamed the “current diabolical state of the energy market”, combined with high wholesale energy prices and a cap on customer pricing, which she said made it “impossible” for Enova Energy and many other small retailers to operate.
“The market is broken and does not support small retailers,” Stenning said.
“In addition, the constant raft of state and federal government regulatory changes is adding to the market complexities and have caused Enova delays in being able to fund and resource energy innovation.”
But she added, while this was a devastating end to operations, she was proud of Enova’s achievements in its six and a half years.
“Enova came to life through the support of more than 1,600 like-minded Australian community shareholders and has been carried forward over the years by a passionate and hard-working team united and inspired by the vision for Enova,” Stening said.
“To our customers, shareholders, and lenders… I hope that you will continue to champion the need for a rapid transition to a much-needed distributed renewable electricity model in Australia.”
Enova has advised that its entire team, which is mainly based in the New South Wales Northern Rivers region, has been made redundant as part of the administration process, which is being managed by Cathro & Partners .
The provider’s more than 13,000 customers will be transferred to a “retailer of last resort” to be determined by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER).
But Enova’s not-for-profit arm, Enova Community, will remain in operation and continue to support community organisations via energy efficiency, education, and community projects.
Since it launched, the Byron Bay-based provider, which was rated number one in 2022 Green Electricity Guide by Greenpeace, has donated over $180,000 to community organisations.
