SA Water regulatory determination 2024

Status

Current status is Draft

Draft

Following a detailed independent review and an opportunity for public submissions, the Commission is consulting on a proposed revised regulatory framework to apply to SA Water from 1 July 2024.

People, businesses and communities in South Australia use water and sewerage services as an essential part of their everyday lives. The essential nature of these services means it is important for SA Water to deliver value for money, now and into the future. 

Consistent with the Commission’s primary objective of protecting the long-term interests of consumers with respect to the price, quality and reliability of essential services, and with its past approach, SAWRD24 challenges SA Water to continue to:

• provide water and sewerage services at the lowest sustainable price for the quality and reliability levels valued by customers, and
• have and deliver against sound long-term asset management, operating and financing strategies, which support the provision of those services for present and future customers.

Though its consultation, the Commission heard from people that affordability is a key concern. In reviewing SA Water’s operations, the Commission has considered whether SA Water is operating prudently, efficiency and delivering value for money. The Commission sought to understand whether SA Water can deliver the projects it planned and made changes so that customers do not pay for projects before they commence. 

Delivering sustainable retail services for current and future customers

The draft decision is that the revenue caps for the four-year period commencing 1 July 2024, in present value terms, are:

• $3,550 million ($Dec22) for water retail services, which is 3 percent less than SA Water’s proposal, and
• $1,785 million ($Dec22) for sewerage retail services, which is 1 percent less than SA Water’s proposal.

The Commission’s assessment is that the revenue caps will provide SA Water with sufficient revenue to fund prudent and efficient operations and finance prudent and efficient investments on a long-term basis while meeting SA Water’s applicable health, safety, environmental and customer service standards and obligations over SAWRD24. In order to deliver value for money on an ongoing basis, SA Water should ensure it has in place sound long-term asset management, operating and financing strategies. These strategies should support the provision of retail services for current and future customers.

The Commission’s reductions are consistent with stakeholders‘ submissions, that some of the expenditure proposed by SA Water was neither justified nor consistent with customers’ priority that prices should be kept as low as possible while maintaining current levels of service.

Next steps

The Commission thanks those who made submissions following publication of SA Water’s Regulatory Business Proposal, all of which were carefully considered and have provided valuable information and insights for the draft regulatory determination. 

Interested parties are invited to make further submissions and provide feedback on the proposals in the draft regulatory determination by Wednesday, 6 March 2024. Their views and feedback will inform the final determination to be published in June 2024. Please refer to send a submission button below or visit YourSAy. 

Further information

Please refer to the publications below, for further information on the Commission’s draft regulatory determination. 

Further information on the process and timing for SAWRD24 is available on the Commission’s website.