On 17 December 2018 the AER published its final decision on its Rate of Return review. The Final decision includes the Rate of Return Instrument and Explanatory Statement.  

This Rate of Return review process has been run in tandem with a proposal to amend the national electricity and gas legislation to replace the Rate of Return Guidelines with a binding legislative instrument.

Those legislative amendments have now been passed into law and were proclaimed on 13 December 2018. The amendments provide that the guidelines review process that has been undertaken by the AER will satisfy the consultation requirements for the first binding Rate of Return Instrument.

Update

On 4 April 2019 the Rate of Return Instrument - version 1.01 was superseded by version 1.02. The AER corrected the Rate of Return Instrument for two typographical errors contained in clause 33(c) as noted in the amended instrument, a track changed version of the amended instrument, and the generic letter notifying stakeholders of the correction of this error.

The explanatory statement published on 17 December 2018 was not affected by the typographical correction.