The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has published its standardised model for standard control services capital expenditure (standardised SCS capex model). This model can now be used by electricity distributors for their revenue reset determinations.
The standardised SCS capex model will streamline the resources and consultation required between the AER and distributors, as well as increase consistency across proposals. The standardised model will provide distributors with greater transparency in our expectations about the modelling assumptions and functionality.
We have released an explanatory note alongside the standardised SCS capex model, which includes changes we made in response to stakeholder feedback.
The development and implementation of the standardised models follows our commitment in the AER Strategic Plan 2020–2025 to explore ways to develop and shape systems to help deliver efficient regulation.
Further to the standardised SCS capex model, we are developing standardised models for ancillary network services (ANS) and metering services. A separate consultation process is currently underway for the standardised metering models and is due to be finalised by the end of March 2022. The standardised ANS model is expected to be released early 2022.
Future updates
The standardised SCS capex model includes an output by high-level regulatory information notice (RIN) capex category, to encourage reconciliation between the RIN and the post-tax revenue model. We are currently undertaking a review of our RINs and will update the model when the new RINs are released to reflect any changes to the RIN capex categories. We aim to align the revised RIN capex categories and the AER capex categories used in the standardised SCS capex model.