The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has made a final decision on the revenue that electricity network service provider, Powerlink Queensland, can recover from its consumers for the 2022–27 regulatory period.
The decision, for the five-year period starting 1 July 2022, allows the transmission business to recover a total revenue of $3,804.2 million from its consumers. This is $152.0 million (4.2%) higher than the draft decision due to base interest rates and estimates of inflation having increased since the draft decision.
The high-quality nature of Powerlink Queensland's initial revenue proposal has meant that the final stage of this process, where we assessed its revised revenue proposal, has been non-contentious and a more efficient regulatory process for all stakeholders, including Powerlink Queensland, consumers and the AER.
The estimated consumer bill impacts are indicative only. We estimate that under this final decision, the transmission component of average annual electricity bills for Powerlink’s consumers would:
- decrease by $3 (0.2%) for residential consumers, $4 (0.2%) for low‑usage small business consumers, and $12 (0.2%) for high‑usage small business consumers, in the first year of the 2022–27 period;
- increase by $3 (0.2%) for residential consumers, $5 (0.2%) for low‑usage small business consumers, and $13 (0.2%) for high‑usage small business consumers, on average in each of the next four years of the 2022–27 period.
By the end of the five-year period, we estimate that electricity bills for residential consumers, low‑usage small business consumers, and high‑usage small business consumers, will have increased by $10 (0.7%), $15 (0.7%), and $39 (0.7%), respectively.