As part of the Better Regulation reform program, we have published an Expenditure Forecast Assessment Guideline (Guideline). The Guideline specifies the information we require to assess expenditure. In order to collect the information specified in the Guideline, the AER has undertaken development of Regulatory Information Notices (RINs).
We issued final RINs for category analysis data requirements on 7 March 2014. Category analysis refers to the economic analysis the AER will use to assess regulatory expenditure proposals of TNSPs and DNSPs. As set out in the Guideline, expenditure assessment by the AER will generally include examining forecast expenditure in relation to defined categories of capital and operating expenditure.
The category analysis RINs have been developed in consultation with stakeholders. This consultation included a series of workshops, bilateral meetings and submissions on data templates and draft RINs.
The AER has also developed RINs to collect data for economic benchmarking. More information on this process can be found on the Expenditure forecast assessment guideline - Regulatory information notices for economic benchmarking page.