The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has today released its quarter one (Q1) 2020-21 retail energy market performance update data, covering the period from July to September 2020.
Key insights from the data include:
- Tier 2 retailers’ market share increased again this quarter across all small customer segments (residential and small business, gas and electricity). This increase is a continuation on a trend of several years. The increases from Q1 2019-20 to Q1 2020-21 ranged from 1 to 1.5 percentage points.
- Customer complaints to retailers fell from 45,856 in quarter one 2019-20 to 33,470 this quarter.
- Disconnections were substantially lower than usual, with 1,078 residential electricity customers disconnected in Q1 2020-21 compared to 15,529 for Q1 2019-20. This result is consistent with one of the key principles of the AER’s Statements of Expectations.
- There were slight increases in the proportion of residential electricity and gas customers on payment plans, up from 1.2% and 0.7% respectively in Q4 2019-20, to 1.3% and 0.9% respectively for Q1 2020-21.
- The AER understands these increases may reflect the fact that during this period some retailers commenced shifting customers from deferred debt arrangements to formal payment plan arrangements.
The AER also recently released its Annual Retail Markets Report 2019-20. The AER's monitoring, regulation and enforcement roles will help deliver affordable and reliable energy for Australian consumers.