The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has today released an issues paper on the 2023–24 default market offer (DMO) price determination for consultation.
This issues paper is the first step in our annual process in setting the DMO prices. The DMO price is the maximum price a retailer can charge a standing offer customer in south-east Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. It seeks to prevent retailers charging unjustifiably high prices to customer on standing offers, while maintaining market competition and participation.
The AER is considering some changes to its approach to setting the DMO 5 to ensure it continues to meet the policy objectives, in light of market developments since DMO 4.
The AER is particularly seeking views on the following aspects of the pricing methodology:
- Refinements to the approach to forecasting wholesale electricity costs
- Appropriate settings for the retail allowance
- How best to implement expanded DMO protections to customers in embedded networks, should the Regulations be reformed to enable this.
The AER plans to host an online forum in November, where key matters from the issues paper can be discussed and the AER can respond to stakeholder questions. Stay tuned for further details and the link for the online forum over the course of the next week.
The draft 2023–24 DMO will be released in early 2023 for consultation, with the final published in May 2023 to come into effect on 1 July 2023.
Invitation for submissions
Consultation is now open and we are seeking written submissions on the key issues and questions raised in this issues paper by 30 November 2022.