The current environment

The way the electricity market functions has a profound impact on customers’ health, well-being and living standards, and even the viability of businesses and whole industries. In recent years, electricity prices have risen considerably because of rising costs in the wholesale market, environmental policy measures and, in some areas, rising network costs. In turn, this has slowed the growth in demand for electricity and, at the same time, fuelled an increase in the take-up of Consumer Energy Resources (CERs) (such as solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles) as customers take meeting their energy needs into their own hands.

Climate change, consumer choices, technology and policy changes have all accelerated the transformation of the energy market in Australia. This means electricity distribution businesses like ours constantly need to adapt and innovate in the ways in which we serve our customers, moving electricity to and from their homes and businesses. The ways in which the market will continue to evolve over the next two decades — including the costs of technology and fuel, the level of customer engagement, and the regulatory and policy response — remains a little unclear. What is clear is that, the energy system in the long term will be vastly different from that of today.

Despite the uncertainty, customers are being presented with more and more ways to take control of their own energy needs. They are increasingly shopping around for better retail offers and looking to new technologies like battery storage, electric vehicles and home energy management systems to manage their usage and lower their bills. With the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems becoming cheaper all the time, it is becoming more and more common for energy consumers to generate their own energy ‘behind the meter’. This, in turn, has changed the way customers use the electricity network and, in response, we must continue to evolve. For the next regulatory period, we aim to continue providing reliable energy while developing a platform that will facilitate innovation and support customers’ choices about managing their own energy supply.