Limited review of Guideline 5 and community prepayment customer protections
- Project Released: 4 Dec 2023
- Project Closes: Jan 2025
- Contact: Lissa Arcoverde
Overview
The Commission is reviewing its Regulatory Reporting Requirements for Small-scale Networks - Guideline No. 5 (Guideline 5). Guideline 5 contains annual reporting requirements for all small-scale networks licensees: water, community wastewater management systems, electricity and gas. This Guideline came into effect on 1 July 2022.
The Commission is also undertaking a review of its community prepayment customer protections. Community prepayment customers are residential customers in the remote Aboriginal communities and associated homelands in Pukatja (formerly Ernabella), Mimili, Pipalyatjara, Amata, Indulkana (also known as Iwantja), Yalata, Oak Valley and Kaltjiti (formerly Fregon) communities. These customers are currently provided with electricity by Cowell Electric Supply Pty Ltd (Cowell Electric) via mandatory prepayment in accordance with the Electricity (General) (Payment Condition) Variation Regulations 2021.
The Commission established a range of consumer protections for the sale of electricity to community prepayment customers, which are set out in Schedule 2 of Cowell Electric’s licence. These consumer protections commenced on 1 July 2022.
The Commission also requires Cowell Electric to report on a range of metrics in relation to prescribed customers. These metrics will be moved into Guideline 5 once they have been assessed as part of this review.
Status
Current status is Draft
- Initiate
- Submissions
- Draft
- Submissions
- Final
Draft
The Commission has made a draft decision on the limited review of Guideline 5 and community prepayment customer protections.
For small-scale licensees that report under Guideline 5, the draft decision proposes two new reporting metrics relating to customer hardship, three new metrics on supply reliability and the removal of one metric on customer concessions. These proposed changes will apply to all small-scale licensees. Reporting metrics for optional prepayment metering, which will apply to any retailer who is approved to offer prepayment metering to its customers, as well as metrics for community prepayment customer metering, are also proposed to be included in Guideline 5.
For community prepayment customers the proposed reporting changes will affect the sole retailer of electricity to these customers, Cowell Electric, and are: one new metric on debt, the removal of one metric on friendly credit, amendments to four existing metrics.
Three new consumer protections for community prepayment customers have also been proposed: protections for customers experiencing family violence, flexible payment arrangements for life support customers, and extended self-disconnection protection periods.
We invite written submissions on the draft decision by 20 September 2024, and welcome meetings with stakeholders regarding this review.