The AER today released its final decision on its Retail performance reporting procedures and guidelines (the Guidelines) for retailers and distributors in jurisdictions that have adopted the National Energy Retail Law (Retail Law). This decision follows public consultation on the draft decision in February and March 2024.
The Retail Guidelines set out the manner and form in which energy retailers must provide retail performance data to the AER. We made several important changes to the Guidelines, including:
- Introducing new indicators to improve the visibility of customers retailers have specific requirements to support (for example, customers in embedded networks, life support customers and customers affected by family violence).
- Refining several indicators to improve definitional clarity and comparability between retailers.
- Expanding a range of indicators to gain greater reporting precision and explanatory value.
- Removing indicators that may no longer add value.
The new indicators and amendments are intended to improve our Retail Guidelines to better enable us to collect data we require to effectively monitor retail market outcomes.
In reaching our final decision, we have aimed to balance the information the AER requires to effectively monitor and report on retail performance with the cost of administration that any changes to the Guidelines places on regulated entities.
The new Guidelines will commence on 1 July 2025.