On 10 December 2012, the AER released the Better regulation issues paper with more information on the guidelines and our plans for the consultation processes for each work stream.

The AER held a videoconference forum on 18 December 2012 to discuss our work program and the consultation process that we are planning.

On 20 March 2013, the AER released its issues paper on the expenditure incentive guidelines.

Submissions to our expenditure incentives issues paper closed on 10 May 2013.

The AER held 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.

There are important interactions between the two guidelines which we discussed in our expenditure incentives issues paper. We presented information and heard from stakeholders on both the guidelines and their interactions at the forum.

The AER recirculated a note presented at the forum held on 29 April 2013 which outlines the general process and timing regarding the decision to accept or adjust a NSP’s base year opex. The note contains some questions which were put to stakeholders for comment.

Submissions in response to our 6 May questions for stakeholder comment closed on 22 May 2013.

The AER provided a model showing the impacts of applying the current EBSS in the current regulatory control period with opex forecasts set exogenously in the following regulatory control period for stakeholder comment. The AER also provided a short discussion document outlining the outcomes of this modelling and the issues it raises. The document included questions for stakeholder response.

Submissions in response to our 10 May questions for stakeholder comment closed on 24 May 2013.