The Justice and Equity Centre provided a submission to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal’s consultation paper on their annual electricity and gas retail market monitoring report. The consultation paper sought feedback on the range of questions and issues IPART anticipates the report will examine, and the types of data that will be used to inform the monitoring.
The current state of the energy market and its ongoing transition increasingly involves significant jurisdictional differences. In this context IPART’s role in monitoring the retail electricity and gas markets provides a critical and unique opportunity to assess energy outcomes for NSW households, identify and understand emerging issues and consider recommendations for NSW Government action. This role is particularly critical through the energy transition, and amidst increasing energy bills and cost of living pressures.
In our submission, we provided IPART with a range of recommendations and feedback on how to best interpret the data and indicators they are drawing on in their analysis. This includes our ongoing critique of how “competition” indicators including customer switching, number of retail offers and number of retailers in the market are framed and discussed. Our submission encouraged IPART to consider a more fundamental question overlaid over the entire monitoring report – what do energy consumers need and want the energy market to do, and how effectively is it delivering those outcomes for all consumers? We contend current frameworks and practices in energy retail markets are not providing NSW households with what they want and need from an affordable essential service.
Alongside feedback on the interpretation and presentation of data, we provided IPART with detail on a range of existing and emerging issues in the energy retail market that can help to inform their monitoring report. This includes issues around:
- Virtual power plants and demand response
- Retail pricing and contracting behaviour
- Unsolicited selling
- Gaps in smart meter protections
- Energy affordability and consumer protections
- Household energy transition outcomes
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