The AER has today published a position paper on the Retail Pricing Information Guidelines, including a draft Guideline, which will be required under the proposed National Energy Retail Law. The paper and draft Guideline are available at the AER's website.
Under the proposed Retail Law, the AER is required to make this Guideline, which aims to assist small customers in comparing standing offer prices and market offer prices offered by retailers. It will specify the manner and form in which details of standing offer prices and market offer prices are to be presented by retailers.
The position paper and draft Guideline form part of the second round of preliminary consultation in relation to the Retail Pricing Information Guidelines. The position paper sets out the AER's preliminary preferred position on a range of issues. The draft Guideline sets out how the AER’s preferred positions in the paper would apply to the presentation of standing and market offer prices by retailers. Responses to the position paper and draft Guideline will assist the AER in its approach to further developing the Guideline. This Guideline will be the subject of formal consultation once the Retail Law has passed. The AER invites written submissions by 29 October 2010. Submissions should be sent to AERInquiry
aer [dot] gov [dot] au (AERInquiry[at]aer[dot]gov[dot]au).
The AER will hold a stakeholder forum on Wednesday 6 October 2010 from 2pm to 5pm (AEST) to discuss the position paper and development of the Guideline. AER staff will be located in Melbourne for this forum, but there will be video conference links to all capital cities in participating jurisdictions. To register your participation at the forum, please send an email to AERInquiryaer [dot] gov [dot] au (AERInquiry[at]aer[dot]gov[dot]au) by 24 September 2010, indicating the city in which you will attend. The subject of the email should state "Registration for Retail Pricing Information Guidelines Forum - attention Dominique Chivers". Registration for the forum is essential as spaces are limited. Stakeholders are asked to nominate no more than one participant each.