PIAC responded to the Australian Energy Market Commission’s (AEMC) consultation on a rule change from Total Environment Centre (TEC) and Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) to integrate Distributed Energy Resources (DER).
We note many of the barriers to the efficient uptake and use of DER can be addressed, and the impacts greatly reduced, by the introduction of more cost reflective tariffs for consumption. We recommend any major reforms to pricing of export or generation capacity should follow, not precede, the full implementation of cost-reflective pricing of consumption.
To assist in the transition to cost-reflective pricing we recommend implementing support measures to protect vulnerable households with high peak usage. In particular, we recommend a shift towards a percentage-based primary concession to provide support alongside the transition to cost reflective pricing and a phasing-in of cost reflective component of tariffs.
