On 14 November 2013, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) commenced consultation on the rule change request made by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) and published a consultation paper to facilitate public comment on key issues in the rule change requests.
Consultation paper - (IPART proposed rule change)
On 5 July 2013 we provided a submission in response to the AEMC’s rule change consultation paper. The submission supported proposal by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of New South Wales (IPART), to bring forward the submission date for network tariff proposals, with consideration to certain implementation issues. These included the extent of any revenue or cash flow risk created by service providers’ forecasts in annual pricing proposals needing to be made earlier in the year, as well as changing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) used in AER regulatory determinations and the input of the Service Target Performance Incentive Scheme’s S-Factor into transmission pricing.
Public forum
The AEMC held a public forum on 27 November 2013. The AER Chairman Andrew Reeves and Networks Operations and Development Branch General Manager Chris Pattas both made presentations at this forum.
Consultation paper (AEMC Initiation)
On 18 December 2013 the AER made a submission to the AEMC’s consultation paper; a significant package of reforms that raised a number around the rationale for, and management of, a transition to more cost-reflective distribution pricing. The submission considered options for achieving more timely outcomes of price reviews and the timing of implementation of reforms to upcoming revenue determinations.
Public forum
The AEMC held a public forum on 22 September 2014. The AER Chairman Andrew Reeves made a presentation at this forum.
AER presentation - AEMC public forum - distribution network pricing arrangements - 22 September 2014
Draft determination
On the 28 August 2014 the AEMC made a draft rule determination.
Our submission to the draft determination supports the AEMC’s draft decision and draft rules and provides comments on the following aspects:
- The economic efficiency and customer impacts pricing principles
- The TSS and annual price review stages of the pricing process
- The transitional rules for implementing the new framework.