The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has released its 2024-25 Compliance and Enforcement Priorities.
These help guide the AER’s enforcement and proactive compliance efforts, and signal areas where the AER will be paying the closest attention to the behaviour of market participants.
The AER reviews its compliance and enforcement priorities every year, and the priorities for 2024-25 extend and update the AER’s priorities from 2023-24, with a focus on:
- Improving outcomes for customers experiencing vulnerability, including by improving retailer hardship policies and access to hardship and payment plan protections.
- Making it easier for consumers to understand their plan and engage in the market by focusing on compliance with billing and pricing information obligations, including the Better Bills Guideline and tariff change notifications.
- Supporting power system security and an efficient wholesale electricity market by focusing on generators’ compliance with offers, dispatch instructions, bidding behaviour obligations and providing accurate and timely information to AEMO.
- Improving market participants’ compliance with performance standards and standards for critical infrastructure.
- Monitoring and enforcing compliance with reporting requirements under the new Gas Market Transparency Measures.
AER Chair Ms Clare Savage said the compliance and enforcement priorities will protect energy consumers and keep the energy system stable and secure.
“With consumers facing ongoing cost-of-living challenges as well as the energy system continuing to transition, we received strong feedback from stakeholders that our current priorities remain relevant, and that there is an opportunity to advance work in these areas.
“For these reasons we have extended our 2023-24 Compliance and Enforcement Priorities for 12 months and updated them to address important fields including the efficacy of retailer hardship policies, price and tariff change notifications, and network compliance with performance standards,” said Ms Savage.
The AER will continue to monitor all facets of the energy market, while focusing on the priority areas, and will proactively work to improve compliance and address harm including by taking enforcement action where appropriate.
The AER will release its 2023-24 Compliance and Enforcement Annual Report in July, detailing work in the priority areas for the previous 12 months.