Ampol prepares retail electricity pilot, as it shifts from the forecourt into homes

Petrol refiner and retailer Ampol has revealed further details of its plan to take on the Australian retail energy market, starting with a pilot fuel and electricity bundle it will roll out to a small number of its staff.

In a half-year results presentation marked by a record profit driven by soaring fossil fuel prices, Ampol said it would trial a combined offer for up to 100 of its employees of liquid fuels as well as electricity “at their home and on the go.”

Ampol CEO Matt Halliday says the idea is to serve customers “at the start during and end of their journey.” And while this currently still includes liquid fuels, Ampol seems at least partially accepting of a future that will be about electrifying everything.

The company is already part-way through its ARENA-backed roll out of 120 EV chargers at its service stations around the country, but it hopes to capture the market in destination charging, too – which Halliday says will mostly happen at peoples’ homes.

Having this year received authorisation from the Australian Energy Regulator, it can now follow the likes of oil giant Shell and telecoms giant Telstra into territory traditionally dominated by the “big four” energy gen-tailers.

“Clearly we have a very significant customer base in retail today – around three million customers a week in Australia. …And so how that can be extended, essentially, into the home is something that we will ultimately look to test further,” Halliday said in a webcast this week.

“The link to e-mobility, as the the car battery effectively plays an increasingly more important role in the home energy ecosystem… will be important.

“It’s not something that we’re going to rush into, obviously the energy markets are quite challenging at the moment, but building the capability and getting on with our testing-learning process is where we’re currently focused,” Haliday said.

While it’s in the “test and learn” phase now, Ampol has flagged its intention to operate in all states in the National Electricity Market – Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, and to target the residential, small-medium businesses and the commercial and industrial market.

“The whole energy generation, transmission and then retail market is going to be fundamentally disrupted as we look forward and as we’re seeing at the moment,” Halliday said this week.

“Ultimately, the connection through e-mobility is going to be an important one. And, you know, we will have more to say about how we see that connection working in due course, but we’re just in the first instance testing .. the value proposition that we have.”