On 10 November 2005 the AER released its draft decision on the Directlink Joint Venturers' application for conversion to a prescribed service and a maximum allowed revenue to June 2015.

Submissions closed 9 December 2005.

In February 2006, Directlink provided further submissions addressing Directlink's reliability and analysis of debt margin estimates.

Country Energy wrote to the AER regarding the installation of the second transformer at Molendinar and impact on Directlink’s capacity to flow south during peak load conditions. Country Energy also provided correspondence between itself and Powerlink.

Directlink wrote to the AER to confirm its claim that Directlink can avoid the upgrade of TransGrid's line 966 (Armidale to Koolkhan).

Following the release of its draft decision, the AER wrote to Country Energy, TransGrid and Powerlink seeking their views on the constraints in the southern Queensland network and the potential for Directlink to avoid the need to upgrade line 966.