Shell completes Powershop takeover despite widespread outrage

Shell has completed its acquisition of green power company Powershop Australia. The takeover sparked heated outcry when it was first announced in November 2021, reportedly causing Powershop to bleed customers who felt angered and betrayed by the apparent ‘greenwashing’.

As of Tuesday, Shell has cleared all regulatory hurdles to officially acquire Australian clean energy retailer Powershop.

Image: Shell

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The outcry following the revelation that oil and gas giant Shell would be purchasing Australia’s ‘greenest’ power company revealed a sizeable shift in Australia’s cognisance of greenwashing and corporate responsibility.

In the month after the takeover was announced, the ABC (Australian National Corporation) gathered data to estimate Powershop had lost 6,000 of its 185,000 customers across New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland.

Social media raged with the news that a fossil fuel giant would take over the company which Greenpeace ranked first in its Green Electricity Guide published in 2018. Activism group GetUp ran a campaign on the corporate takeover, encouraging customers to switch providers – a call which seems to have been heeded with minor “green electricity” retailers reporting spikes in new customers over the last three months.

GetUp! launched a major campaign encouraging Powershop customers to abandon the company which could no longer reasonably be seen as “green”

GetUp!

As of February 1, Shell’s takeover of Powershop Australia was completed nonetheless, clearing the final regulatory steps. The company will now operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell under the Powershop brand within the Shell Energy business in Australia, which is part of Shell’s global Renewables and Energy Solutions business.

Shell bought the business after teaming up with Australian investment manager Infrastructure Capital Group (ICG) to take over Powershop’s partner company, Meridian Energy Australia (MEA), a subsidiary of New Zealand-based company Meridian Energy.

The price Shell paid for Powershop, and its certified clean and green credentials, remains undisclosed, though the acquisition was reportedly part of a $729 million asset sale by Meridian.

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