The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has released a draft decision paper on CitiPower's and Powercor's proposed security fee schemes. The draft decision paper follows a consultation paper released in June 2010 seeking stakeholders' comments on the proposed schemes.
Under Electricity Industry Guideline No. 14 - Provision of Services by Electricity Distributors, a distribution network service provider (DNSP) may require a security deposit (security fee) when connecting high risk customers to insure against potential asset stranding, which will then be eventually funded by all other customers of the DNSP. The paper presents the AER's draft decision to approve CitiPower's and Powercor's proposed interest rate (to be paid by the DNSP to certain customers who are required to pay a security fee) and administration charge. In addition, the draft decision paper seeks stakeholders' comments and outlines the AER's indicative views on the fairness and reasonableness of the security fee scheme, which will inform the AER should a dispute be submitted to AER.
The AER welcomes submissions to this draft decision paper which are due by 4 February 2011. Submissions can be sent electronically to: aerinquiry
aer [dot] gov [dot] au (aerinquiry[at]aer[dot]gov[dot]au)
Alternatively, submissions can be sent to:
Mr Chris PattasGeneral Manager
Network Regulation South
Australian Energy Regulator
GPO Box 520
Melbourne VIC 3001
The consultation paper and draft decision paper on CitiPower's and Powercor's proposed security fee schemes are available on the AER's website.