Consultation paper: Issues and AER's preliminary positions - connection charge guideline for accessing the electricity distribution network

The Ministerial Council on Energy has endorsed the introduction of a new chapter 5A ––Electricity connection for retail customers–– to the National Electricity Rules. Under chapter 5A, the AER will be required to develop and publish connection charge guidelines to codify how Electricity Distribution Network Service Providers should charge new electricity customers for connecting to their networks.

As part of developing this guideline, the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has identified a number of issues and alternate options for calculating the connection charge. As this guideline will have a significant impact on the community in how new users are charged for connecting to the electricity grid, the AER considers that it is important to consult on these issues before it proceeds to further develop the guideline.

The AER today released an issues and preliminary positions paper on the design of the connection charge guidelines for consultation. As part of this consultation process, the AER will also be hosting a public forum about the issues identified in this paper.

Public forum

The AER will be hosting a public forum on Monday, 11 July 2011 to explain the issues identified in this paper and to facilitate stakeholders in preparing their submissions to the AER. Details of the forum are:

Date:
Monday 11 July 2011

Time:
1:30 to 4:00 pm AEST (1:00 to 3:30 pm for Adelaide)

Location:
The ACCC/AER offices in Hobart, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide via video links.

The office addresses can be found at the ACCC's website.

Attached to this notice is a registration form. If you would like to attend the forum, please send a completed registration form to the AER via email to aerinquiryaer [dot] gov [dot] au (aerinquiry[at]aer[dot]gov[dot]au), the closing date for registration is Friday 8 July 2011.

Submissions

Interested parties are invited to make written submissions to the AER regarding this paper by the close of business Friday 5 August 2011.

Submissions can be sent electronically to: aerinquiryaer [dot] gov [dot] au (aerinquiry[at]aer[dot]gov[dot]au)

Alternatively, submissions can be sent to:

For information regarding the AER’s use and disclosure of information provided to it, see the ACCC/AER Information Policy, October 2008 available on the AER’s website.