ESCOSA content iconReview of NECF in South Australia

  • Project Released: 23 Feb 2015
  • Project Closes: 30 May 2016
  • Contact: Mike Philipson

Overview

The Commission has a statutory obligation to conduct a review of the operation of the National Energy Retail Law (NERL) in South Australia.  The NERL establishes the National Energy Customer Framework (NECF) which commenced operation in South Australia on 1 February 2013. 

Key areas covered by this framework include: billing; hardship and disconnection obligations, access to dispute resolution and service connection. With the introduction of NECF the principal regulation of South Australia's retail energy market transferred to the Australian Energy Regulatory (AER).

Status

Current status is Final

  • Initiate
  • Submissions
  • Draft
  • Submissions
  • Final

Final

 The legislation establishing the NERL Review requires that the review must focus on the impact of the NERL on the consumers of energy and whether its implementation has:

(a) resulted in increased efficiencies; or
(b) adversely affected customer protection in pursuit of national consistency.

The Commission has released its findings for the NERL review. The Commission's  findings are summarised in the Executive Summary, which is also released as a separate paper. The Commission has consulted widely throughout the process of developing the final report.

The overall  finding is that the operation of the NERL has furthered the interests of South Australian energy consumers, has resulted in increased efficiencies and has not adversely affected consumer protection in pursuit of national consistency.

The Commission provided its findings  to the Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources in April 2016. The findings were tabled in the South Australian Parliament in May 2016.


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