The AER will hold a joint stakeholder forum on 29 April 2013 to discuss its expenditure incentives guideline, as well as the interaction between its expenditure incentives and expenditure assessments guidelines as part of the Better Regulation program.
We released an issues paper on the expenditure incentives guideline for consultation on 20 March 2013. Our consultation on the expenditure assessments guideline is also well under way, with an issues paper released on 21 December 2012.
The expenditure incentives guideline will set out how we will apply improved incentives for network businesses to incur efficient capital expenditure, so customers only fund the investment necessary to provide a safe and reliable network. We are also reviewing the incentives for efficient operating expenditure. In particular, we will consider revisions to the current efficiency benefit sharing scheme that applies to network businesses.
The expenditure assessments guideline will describe the techniques and associated data requirements of our approach to determining efficient expenditure allowances in accordance with the objectives, criteria and factors in the National Electricity Rules. The techniques used and data collected under the guidelines will also form the basis of our annual benchmarking reports.
There are important interactions between the two guidelines, some of which we discuss in our expenditure incentives issues paper. We will be presenting information, and would like to hear from stakeholders, on both the guidelines and their interactions at the forum.
Register to attend
Forum: AER expenditure incentives and expenditure assessments joint stakeholder forum
Date: 29 April 2013
Location: Parkroyal at Melbourne Airport
Time: 10 am to 4 pm. The morning session will be on the expenditure incentives guideline, and the afternoon session will be on the interaction between the expenditure incentives and expenditure assessments guidelines.
If you would like to attend the forum please register by sending your details to incentives
aer [dot] gov [dot] au (incentives[at]aer[dot]gov[dot]au). You must register by close of business 19 April 2013 to attend. Stakeholders can elect to attend the morning or afternoon session, or both.
Attendance at the forum will be limited to a maximum of two representatives per organisation. We apologise if this causes inconvenience, but we feel it is necessary to keep the session as manageable and interactive as possible. For organisations with more than two people registered, you will be asked to nominate two representatives.
We may make teleconference facilities available, however we encourage stakeholders to attend in Melbourne. Our aim is to have a free flowing exchange of ideas at the forum, and stakeholders will have the best opportunity to engage by attending in Melbourne.
We will publish a meeting agenda closer to the date.
Expenditure incentives submissions deadline extended
We are extending the deadline for written submissions on our expenditure incentives issues paper to close of business 10 May 2013. This will allow more time for stakeholders’ written submissions to incorporate material from the forum. More information on how to make written submissions is on our expenditure incentives webpage.