Joint submission in response to the Northern Territory Utilities Commission’s Electricity Performance Code Review

We joined First Nations organisations and energy advocates to call on the Utilities Commission of the Northern Territory to ensure transparent public reporting for people on prepaid energy arrangements.

Despite risks of disconnection — particularly during temperature extremes — nearly all remote First Nations households in the Northern Territory use prepaid electricity (where you pay for electricity before you use it). The Territory Government acknowledges the prepaid electricity system contributes to energy insecurity due to frequent disconnections, with research finding disconnections are ‘unrelentingly high’ in prepay households, causing significant impacts on health and wellbeing.

The Utilities Commission of the Northern Territory says the current framework of delivering electricity in communities in the NT lacks publicly available performance reporting and service standards. This is inconsistent with both local and national retail performance reporting practices.