Becoming an energy retailer

Under national energy law, a person or business that engages in the retail sale of energy requires a retailer authorisation issued by the AER.

Three entry criteria must be satisfied to obtain a retailer authorisation:

  • organisational and technical capacity of the applicant to meet the obligations of a retailer
  • financial resources that ensure financial viability and financial capacity to meet the obligations of a retailer
  • suitability of the applicant to be an energy retailer.

Retailer Authorisation Guideline

If you are applying for a retail authorisation, please follow our Retailer Authorisation Guideline.

Read our guideline here

What to do before applying

Our Retailer Authorisation Guideline sets out the approach to assessing applications for retailer authorisation, and the transfer, surrender or revocation of a retailer authorisation.

Before applying:

Read the Retailer Authorisation Guideline and the additional information applicants need to provide to support their application.

Complete the application checklist and declaration templates. 

Submit the completed application together with the checklist to aerauthorisationsataer [dot] gov [dot] au (aerauthorisations[at]aer[dot]gov[dot]au)

Note: The AER will provide feedback to applicants only when a checklist confirming that the application contains all the information set out in the Guideline is also provided.

Checklist and templates

Retailer authorisation application checklist 

Document

Retailer authorisation template declarations 

Document

Exemptions to becoming a retailer

There are some situations where a retailer authorisation is not necessary or appropriate, and a person selling energy may be exempt from the requirement to have an authorisation.

The AER’s Exempt Selling Guideline sets out the AER’s approach to retail exemptions, including details of the types of activities which are exempt from the requirement to hold a retailer authorisation.

Have a question? Contact us at aerauthorisationsataer [dot] gov [dot] au (aerauthorisations[at]aer[dot]gov[dot]au)

 

Public register of retailer authorisations

We keep a public register of all authorised retailers and publish any application for authorisation or to transfer or surrender an authorisation.

Go to the register