The JEC made a submission to the Australian Energy Market Commission’s (AEMC) draft terms of reference for its review on electricity pricing.
The JEC welcomes this review and submits it should center on a comprehensive re-evaluation of energy pricing and regulation to better serve consumer needs and promote equitable outcomes. We are concerned the draft narrowly focuses on consumer energy resources (CER) and risks forgoing a broader analysis of the fundamental principles guiding energy pricing and regulation.
Enabling CER to make an optimum contribution to efficient and affordable energy for all consumers should be a key consideration for this review, but it cannot be regarded as the only outcome objective for consumers without CER.
The JEC urges the AEMC to explore the values and assumptions underlying current energy systems and assessing their successes and failures in delivering equitable outcomes. Doing so will require dispensing with abstracted ideas and assumptions regarding consumers, markets, and regulation and a commitment to re-examining how energy, as an essential service, is delivered, priced, and regulated.
