On 1 March 2022 Powercor submitted an application under clause 6.6.1 of the National Electricity Rules to the AER for a positive pass through of costs associated with a new regulatory obligation to replace or reinforce 34,650 wood poles between 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2026.

Powercor proposed that the pass through amount should be recovered through an increase in Powercor’s distribution revenue over the remainder of the 2021–26 regulatory control period. Powercor also proposed an adjustment to its service level targets for the Customer Service Incentive Scheme because of the higher number of planned outages that the additional pole interventions will require.

Energy consumers and other interested parties were invited to make submissions on Powercor's increase to minimum wood pole interventions pass through application by 25 March 2022.

We received two submissions. Both parties made a confidential submission and requested that it not be made public.

On 10 May 2022 we issued a notice to Powercor extending the time limit for making a decision on its increase to minimum wood pole interventions pass through application in accordance with clause 6.6.1(k1) of the National Electricity Rules. As a result, the time limit for making our determination as been extended to 2 September 2022.