Under the Retail Law, the AER is responsible for overseeing the national Retailer of Last Resort (RoLR) scheme. The scheme is principally designed to ensure that in the event of retailer failure, arrangements are in place to ensure that customers continue to receive electricity and/or gas supply. Under the RoLR scheme, the AER must publish the RoLR guidelines, publish the RoLR plan, appoint default RoLRs, maintain and publish a register of RoLRs, appoint designated RoLRs following a RoLR event and make RoLR cost recovery scheme determinations.
On the 8 November 2011, the AER released the final version of the RoLR guidelines, RoLR plan and RoLR statement of approach (the final RoLR package).
On 31 July 2015, the AER released version 4 of the RoLR plan. The changes are explained in the accompanying notice of final instrument.