Analysis

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New Year, new regulated pricing approaches?

Consultations are underway for the setting of the default market offers in 2024. Both the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) and the Essential Services Commission (ESC) in Victoria and have released early papers outlining their key areas of focus. In comparing the two approaches, the AER appears to be undergoing a more detailed review, whereas the ESC seems to be more settled in its methodology overall. We take a look at the approaches being undertaken.

BY Jo De Silva Dec 07 2023

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Industry funding for financial counselling services

Earlier this week, the Federal Government and a group of industry bodies announced a partnership to co-fund an Industry Funded Financial Counselling body, designed to bring together industry and the financial counselling sector to enable better support for Australian consumers. We take a look at the announcement, and highlight some opportunities and risks for the funding body as it enters its development phase.

BY Ben Barnes Nov 23 2023

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Going over and above

Retailers take their role as providers of essential services very seriously and the intensive monitoring and reporting of their obligations illustrates this. But these regulatory obligations merely represent a part of their extensive support programs. The willingness of retailers to invest further in supporting customers in need is a sign of their broader customer commitment. We take a closer look at the additional support retailers provide to their customers.

BY Jo De Silva Nov 02 2023

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Consumer affordability trends in the retail energy market

The recent AER State of The Energy Market report highlights customer affordability trends in the retail electricity market, as well as market impacts from the increasing efficiency of homes and demand response technologies. The report also looks at hardship programs offered by retailers and other support available to consumers.

BY Australian Energy Council Oct 26 2023

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Rushing to the finish line: Can we clear the hurdles on the way to 100% smart meters by 2030?

Last month, a report by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) recommended that the deployment of smart meters across the National Electricity Market (excluding Victoria) should be accelerated so we achieve 100 per cent uptake among small customers by 2030. The AEMC argues that achieving a critical mass of smart meter deployment in a far timelier manner will deliver greater benefits for customers and support the wider decarbonisation of the energy market. But what are the hurdles that will need to be cleared on the way to the finish line? We take a look.

BY Braeden Keen Sep 21 2023

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Supporting customers with high energy costs: A retailer perspective

We take a look inside energy retail businesses to see what support is offered to customers facing hardship. While retailers have a range of relevant regulatory obligations, their programs go over and above their obligations to help customers in payment difficulty or at risk of payment difficulty. Retailers take their role as providers of essential services very seriously and the intensive monitoring and reporting of their obligations illustrates this.

BY Jo De Silva Sep 14 2023

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AEC Analysis: Retail Market Performance Indicators

Governments, regulators and consumer advocates are taking more interest than ever in monitoring the retail energy market, and everyone has a view on what is working and what is going wrong. In this climate, the release of both the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) and the Victorian Essential Services Commission’s (ESC) market performance indicators for the third quarter of 2023 provides a useful datapoint to assess how retailers are tracking, and how customers are managing their energy bills. We take a deep dive into the numbers, and provide some context on their drivers.

BY Ben Barnes Jul 06 2023

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Electrifying moves

This week the ACT Government announced increased support for residents to electrify their homes. More broadly electrification of homes continues to be the subject of much discussion with a new Grattan Institute report recommending ways to encourage households to shift from gas, the announcement of a Senate inquiry into home electrification and an AER review underway. We take a closer look at the new developments and some of the implications.

BY Carl Kitchen Jun 29 2023

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Default Prices: A fine balancing act

There has been much attention on recent regulated electricity tariffs in an environment where cost-of-living pressures continue to bite. The process of setting a regulated price tries to cater for industry and consumer needs but it is not a simple case of giving more to one than the other. The best-case scenario of a regulated price will see competition dampened. But in the worst scenario, retailers will go out of business, as was seen last week with two more retailer failures. We take a look at the latest decisions and what market indicators say about the effectiveness of the policies overall.

BY Jo De Silva Jun 22 2023

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Why it’s important to have good standards

There is so much going on in the Consumer Energy Resources (CER) space it’s difficult to keep track. There’s record uptake of rooftop solar, VPP trials, advanced trials for a CER marketplace. Market bodies and regulators are making efforts to enable consumer uptake of CER with reforms and technical standards. Those standards will strongly influence how CER operate, interact with the grid and what benefit owners ultimately derive. Here we take a closer look at how they work and consider why it’s important for stakeholders to get involved.

BY David Markham May 25 2023

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Holding the line – price regulation during a cost-of-living crisis

Price regulation is tricky at any time but setting annual prices in the complex system of electricity…this year – is a particular challenge. Regulated prices form a significant input to retailers’ revenue forecasts and impact their product design, pricing and wholesale portfolio risk management strategies – often set-up more than a year in advance. So it’s vitally important for market stability that regulators apply principle-based methodologies consistently across periods. Here we have undertaken a detailed look at how the methodologies used by the AER and Victoria’s ESC compare and arrived at their recent draft determinations.

BY Jane Sing Apr 20 2023

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Deep Dive: 2023 NSW Election Commitments

With the New South Wales state election less than two weeks away, the campaign is heating up. The Perrottet Government is seeking a fourth term in office with its self-described agenda to “Keep NSW Moving Forward.” In contrast, NSW Labor and its leader Chris Minns are promising a new direction and campaigning for a “Fresh Start for NSW”. We take a look at election commitments from the major parties and their implications for the energy industry.

BY Mitchell Cutting and Jemma Townson Mar 16 2023

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Paying for primary frequency response – Finally some light at the end of a long tunnel

AEMO is designing the detailed implementation of Frequency Performance Payments (FPP) as a means to maintain the National Electricity Market’s frequency close to 50 Hertz. The market operator has performed some preliminary modelling of likely outcomes and this work provides some early comfort, that, although a voluntary market was always the industry’s first choice, a FPP compensation regime might be the next best thing. We take a look at the modelling, and how it came about.

BY Ben Skinner Mar 02 2023

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Engagement: We’re all in this together

Over recent months as energy prices have spiked around the world and governments have intervened in and capped fuel markets locally, consumers perceptions of Australia’s energy market have changed. Consequently, energy prices have been front of mind for business, industry, government and consumers for an extended period of time. We take a look at recent research in the context of consumers’ expectations as we enter 2023.

BY Mitchell Cutting Feb 02 2023

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What a difference a year makes

It has been an extraordinary year in energy (some might say unprecedented). While 12 months ago the ACCC was announcing the lowest electricity prices for 8 years, now price caps on gas and black coal are expected in response to concerns about wholesale price surges and their impact on end user bills. Aside from these price challenges, we saw the NEM suspended for the first time, as well as major state-based energy plans unveiled, including revival of Victoria’s State Electricity Commission, and announcements of more early coal closures. We take a brief look back as the year draws to a close and consider what 2023 might bring.

BY Sarah McNamara Dec 08 2022

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Deep Dive: 2022 Victorian Election Commitments

Recent data shows that energy is an issue that more and more voters are conscious of as they consider which politicians are best to lead us. The latest True Issues Survey conducted by JWS Research and published in the Australian Financial Review shows that 39% of people believe that energy is one of the most important issue the government should focus on, compared with 20% in March. This movement comes against a background of an energy crisis in June precipitating higher wholesale energy prices and the effects beginning to filter through to consumer bills.

BY Australian Energy Council Nov 24 2022

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Consumer Data Right kicks off in energy

Energy has become the second sector to enter the Consumer Data Right (CDR) ecosystem. The culmination of many years of hard work, effort, and resources, it has not been without significant hurdles along the way. We take a closer look at how the big three retailers navigated the challenges to deliver a multi-million dollar project for customers. The lessons learned will be instructive for others who are about to begin their own journey.

BY Rhys Thomas Nov 17 2022

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Energy Challenges Reflected in Consumer Sentiment

The most recent assessment of consumer sentiment shows a dip this year from the record levels of satisfaction with retailers recorded last year. Despite the 3 per cent drop in sentiment (to 80 per cent) it remains at one of the highest levels reported since the start of the surveys in 2016.

BY Australian Energy Council Jul 21 2022

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The difficulty is in the detail

Victoria’s ESC recently released its review of the Payment Difficulty Framework that sought to investigate whether retailers had appropriately implemented, and were effectively complying with, the new rules. While the headline of the ESC's media release appeared to suggest retailers were not delivering on their intent, when taking a closer look at the report it actually shows retailers have done an excellent job in implementing the reform.

BY Ben Barnes Jun 23 2022

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Inflation, interest rates, commodity prices and electricity prices

There has been growing concern about inflationary pressures, the prospect of higher interest rates and higher fuel costs for the economy generally. But what do these factors mean for electricity prices? We have taken a detailed look at the factors at play and how they are likely to determine and influence our power prices.

BY Peter Brook May 19 2022

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