We released our final decision on the maximum prices Melbourne Water may charge for its services from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2026 on 22 June 2021.
This review is relevant to water customers living in and around the Melbourne metropolitan area
Melbourne Water provides wholesale water supply and sewage management services to retail water corporations that we also regulate. These retail water corporations are Greater Western Water (formerly City West Water
1 March 2019
Download this update as a PDF
(pdf, 315.47 KB)
From 1 March 2019, new gas efficiency activities commence under the Victorian Energy Upgrades program.
We have released documentation to provide program participants with guidance on how to
Over the two days of Sunday 28 and Monday 29 January (the Australia Day weekend) 2018, 94,712 Victorian customers lost power at some point.
Following the outages, the Victorian Government:
- made a deal (called the 'heat relief package') with five Victorian electricity distributors to provide a $5 million relief package to approximately 50,000 affected customers
- completed a post-event review report that included a recommendation that we monitor
In 2017, we reviewed the Energy Retail Code and made changes that better protect residential customers anticipating or facing payment difficulty.
On 1 January 2019 changes to the Energy Retail Code took effect. These changes protect customers facing payment difficulty and ensure disconnection is only ever a measure of last resort.
In February 2019, we audited retailers’ websites to ensure they included information for customer’s on their entitlements to assistance,
Thousands of Victorian households and small businesses have had new energy efficient LED lighting installed following changes to the state’s free energy upgrades program in January.
The Essential Services Commission’s Jeff Cefai says the new regulations came into effect this year, allowing energy efficient LED lamps to be used to replace compact fluorescent lamps.
“There have been around 30,000 installations for just this new activity since the beginning of the year with only a few complaints stemming
On 1 July 2021, City West Water and Western Water integrated to form business Greater Western Water. Greater Western Water’s 2018–23 regulatory period was extended by one year to address the business merge – accordingly, it extended its outcome commitments for the previously Western Water area by one year to cover 2023-24.This page summarises Greater Western Water (previously Western Water area)'s performance against its outcomes, measures, and targets for the regulatory period
This page summarises Coliban Water's performance against its outcomes, measures, and targets for the regulatory period 2023–28. This is the first year of reporting against its 2023 price review commitments.More details are available on our outcomes reporting page, and on Coliban Water’s website.What are outcomes?Water businesses are accountable to their customers for delivering the outcomes set out in their price submissions, under our PREMO water pricing framework. Each
This page summarises Gippsland Water's performance against its outcomes, measures, and targets for the regulatory period 2023–28. This is the first year of reporting against its 2023 water price review commitments.More details are available on our outcomes reporting page, and on Gippsland Water’s website.What are outcomes?Water businesses are accountable to their customers for delivering the outcomes set out in their price submissions, under our PREMO water pricing framework
This page summarises GWMWater's performance against its outcomes, measures, and targets for the regulatory period 2023–28. This is the first year of reporting against its 2023 price review commitments.More details are available on our outcomes reporting page, and on GWMWater’s website.What are outcomes?Water businesses are accountable to their customers for delivering the outcomes set out in their price submissions, under our PREMO water pricing framework. Each business is
We have made new rules that strengthen and clarify protections for Victorian customers who require life support equipment.
New protections for life support customers
These strengthened protections include:
- life support customers will receive protections once their retailer, distributor or embedded network is made aware of their needs
- energy businesses to provide more comprehensive information to life support customers about their rights, processes and energy
We encourage employees and members of the public to report incidents of corrupt or improper conduct. The Protected Disclosure Act 2012 helps people make disclosures of improper conduct by public officers and public bodies. It also provides protection to people who make disclosures in accordance with the Act, and outlines how disclosures are addressed.
On 4 February 2015, the Minister for Finance, in consultation with the Minister for Energy and Resources, asked us to inquire into best practice financial hardship programs of energy retailers.
We published our Supporting Customers, Avoiding Labels: Energy Hardship Inquiry Final Report, which outlined our findings. The final report is the result of extensive consultation with energy retailers and consumer groups. The report recommends a new framework with a set of
The Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Act 2014 requires retailers to pass on to customers all cost savings resulting from the repeal of the carbon tax. We consulted with retailers a standing offer tariff variation that enabled them to introduce a carbon price-exclusive standing offer tariff.
On 18 June 2014, we released our position paper Variations to Standing Offer Tariffs Following The Removal of The Carbon Price. We invited
In 2012, the former Minister for Energy and Resources asked us to consider harmonising our codes and guidelines with the national energy customer framework and the National Energy Retail Law (Victoria) Bill 2012.We reviewed relevant codes and guidelines to ensure that:
- they aligned more effectively with the framework and new legislation
- the updates did not reduce key protections for Victorian customers.
In 2011, Lockstep Consulting was engaged by the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) to undertake a Privacy Impact Assessment of Victoria’s smart metering program. The report looked at whether smart meters affected customer privacy in relation to interval metering, remote communication and control capabilities, and management and design of the metering system.
The Minister for Energy and Resources asked us to:
- consider the relevant
We sought and obtained assurances that EnergyAustralia was taking effective action to rectify breaches that were still continuing, and had successfully completed remedial action for others.
EnergyAustralia continued to report to us on its progress towards full compliance.
We consider the undertaking discharged (finalised).
The Victorian Government’s General Exemption Order (a key document related to electricity licensing exemptions) specifies that most exempt persons, such as embedded electricity networks in some apartment buildings, shopping centres, caravan parks and retirement villages, must join a customer dispute resolution scheme by 1 July 2018.
We have approved the Energy and Water Ombudsman (Victoria) (EWOV) as a customer dispute resolution scheme for the purposes of the
‘Fixed benefit’ periods are a feature of some customer’s energy contracts. They are typically a set period of time during which a discount or benefit applies. For example, a 20 per cent discount for the first 12 months of a two year contract.
In early 2018, we changed the Energy Retail Code so that energy retailers in Victoria must notify customers when any 'fixed benefit' periods change or end.
From February 1 2018, retailers in Victoria are required to notify customers