In what has been many weeks and may continue to be many months of uncertainty & disruption, we would like to provide an update on the impact of COVID-19 on our business and the industry as a whole.

The Global-Roam Team

With COVID-19 it seems that it is impossible to eliminate all risks, but we have been implementing everything we can think to do to look after our personal health – in order that we can continue to serve our customers. Amongst other things, we have essentially ‘locked ourselves down’ in working from home at locations scattered across Brisbane – and also now in Melbourne.

Whilst these steps are reducing the risks to our personal health, they will be meaning (at least initially, whilst we find new ways of managing) that we’ll be working a bit more slowly than we would have in the past – and possibly also some things might slip through the cracks. We realise that you are probably in a similar boat yourself, and would ask for your understanding if you find something not quite right in the service you’re getting from us (please let me know if you find this to be the case).

The personal health of all of our team is most important to us – but it’s also important to make a quick comment on the company’s health, especially in the light of daily news updates about rapidly changing business circumstances and the like.

On that front, we would just note that (whilst nothing is ever certain in business) the company is in a secure position from which to continue serving our clients well into the future. We can build on the foundation laid over the past 20 years. We’re profitable, have a reserve of cash, are 100% employee-owned and are continuing to invest for the future.

Contacting us during this period

If you need to reach us during this period you can still call our team on +61 7 3368 4064. If you are asked to leave a voicemail, then please leave a clear message, including how we can get back to you, and someone from our team with promptly get in touch. Alternatively, you can reach us using this feedback form if your enquiry is of a more general nature.

Impact of COVID-19 on the energy supply chain

Over on WattClarity, Paul penned his initial thoughts on possible impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the supply side of the industry. He highlighted that key person risk needs to be managed for all businesses in the core supply chain over these months. As the coming weeks unfold, we will look to publish any additional observations on WattClarity on how the unfolding events are affecting energy supply.

Impact of COVID-19 on electricity consumption, as a broader proxy

In the last week, we’ve provided comments to the Australian media on electricity consumption trends that we have observed in March. On Friday, Matthew Cranston, economics correspondent at the Australian Financial Review, quoted Paul in his article which visualised some of the economic effects of the virus pandemic and related government restrictions. In particular, we discussed a very notable decline in demand over this period:

WattClarity energy analyst Paul McArdle said that just over Thursday, Australia’s aggregate energy usage had dipped below 500,000 megawatt hours and “might” be indicative of the movement restrictions starting to work.

“Energy use has been tightly coupled with growth in the economy so a reduction, particularly in these circumstances, shows a slowdown is coming,” Mr McArdle said, “It also provides real-time feedback on the way in which the latest round of restrictions will change life as we know it.”