👉 Background: Although Telstra has always been known for its telco services, the Big T wants to be known for more than just phone plans, internet and weirdly emotional TV ads. Enter: Telstra’s energy ambitions.

👉 What happened: Telstra had planned to launch Telstra Energy by the end of this year. But suddenly, last week, Telstra said it no longer makes sense to launch this year…considering the “dislocation” going on in the energy market.

👉 What else: In other words, the difference between wholesale and retail prices is small- sometimes even negative. This essentially reduces profit margins for energy providers (even creating a loss sometimes).

What's the key learning?

💡Market demand isn’t enough to overcome market volatility. Although Telstra says 10,000 people had expressed interest in becoming a Telstra Energy customer - the product needs to come at the right time.

💡Telstra was planning to become a top 5 energy retailer by 2025 (ie more than 500,000 customers). But this little pause on proceedings will surely make that goal pretty tough to achieve.

💡But it makes sense - the current market conditions have been fatal for some players in the space - particularly smaller players. We’re talkin’ ReAmped Energy, Discover Energy, Local Planning Energy.

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