The state’s energy regulator is planning a review aimed at ensuring the power is turned on in new developments so Victorians can move into their homes without undue delays.
Electricity and gas licences, exemptions and trial wavers
View licences for electricity and gas distributors, retailers and transmission services, and Victorian electricity generators. You can also view information on who
Simply Energy has again been hit with penalties for allegedly switching customers without obtaining consent, including one case where the error wasn’t fixed for five months.
The Essential Services Commission has issued $300,000 in penalties to the energy retailer for 15 incidents between February 2017 and September 2018 that caused considerable stress and led to financial losses to customers from throughout the state.
Commission chairperson Kate Symons says such conduct is much more than inconvenient.
Key audit results 2018–19
EnergyAustralia could not show us they had consistently obtained customers’ consent over the phone before switching customers to their plan.
EnergyAustralia could not show us they had consistently trained their marketing representatives.
The audit also covered whether EnergyAustralia applied payment plans to financial hardship customers but did not find any issues.
Recommended actions
We looked into the causes of these findings and
Victoria’s economic regulator has found that the Port of Melbourne has not been fully compliant with state government’s legislative requirements for how it should set prices for services.
We have completed our inquiry
We are required by the Port Management Act 1995 (Vic) to conduct an inquiry into the Port of Melbourne’s compliance with the 2016 pricing order every five years. Our first inquiry covered the review period 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2021.
We
2 February 2022
Through our compliance program, we have identified VEEC creation claims for building based lighting upgrades (activity 34) that do not accurately reflect the presence of lighting control devices in baseline LED lamps. This has led to an inflated number of VEECs being created for these upgrades.
Penalty notices
30 November 2021
Sumo Gas penalty notices 2021 (wrongful disconnection)
(pdf, 4.99 MB)
30 November 2021
Sumo Power penalty notices 2021 (wrongful disconnection
We are responsible for setting and annually reviewing the Victorian Default Offer prices. The default offer is designed to be a simple, trusted and reasonably priced electricity option that safeguards customers that are unwilling or unable to engage in the market.
We have set the Victorian Default Offer prices to apply from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.
Our final decision means Victorian Default Offer prices will increase in
The Essential Services Commission establishes and maintains codes and guidelines that outline the rules for the distribution and retail sale of electricity and gas in Victoria.
Some of our codes and guidelines apply to both the electricity and gas industries, while others only apply to one. You can view the current codes or previous amendments by clicking on the blue tiles below.
You can also read the market performance and reporting page on this website to see
Read our media release
17 March 2022
Two Victorian energy retailers pay almost $2m for allegedly failing to meet energy efficiency obligations
(, )
Blue NRG paid a penalty of $1,585,082.72 after we issued the company with a Victorian energy
This guideline has been repealed. From 1 October 2022, the voltage variation compensation regulations are in Schedule 4 of the Electricity Distribution Code of Practice.
Our Voltage Variation Compensation Interpretations document provides advice to the Energy and Water Ombudsman (Victoria) Ltd.(EWOV) about the meanings of consequential loss and reasonable precautions
Guideline 11: Electricity Industry - Voltage Variation Compensation
This guideline relates to clause
At our first community sector roundtable for the year, the community support sector told the Essential Services Commission that in the first few months of 2022 they have seen ongoing hardship being experienced by many in the community, and emphasised the importance for customers to have access to utility concessions and consistent financial hardship support from energy retailers.
Representatives from 20 consumer and community support organisations attended last week’s roundtable meeting.
AGLA Vic Hydro Assets Pty Ltd (ACN 651 907 050) withdrew its licence application on 22 June 2022.
22 April 2022
Updated product application guide for water heating products
In conjunction with the New South Wales’ Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), we have integrated the application process for residential heat pumps and solar hot water heater products across the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) program and New South Wales’ Energy Savings Scheme (ESS).
We set maximum fares for taxi services for the metropolitan Melbourne and the 'urban and large regional' taxi zones. We made our taxi fare determination for these taxi zones on 19 June 2014.
We determined that the fare levels for these zones would not change from what we recommended in March 2014 and were implemented by the Victorian Government on 19 May 2014.
The determination is based on our taxi fare review (completed in March 2014). We undertook
We reviewed the fees charged for vehicle towing and storage after an accident within Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula.
Every four years, we conduct a review which recommends to the Minister for Roads:
- whether accident towing and storage fees are appropriate
- how accident towing and storage fees should be adjusted
- whether the fees for related services (such as salvage) should be regulated.
Households on the Victorian default offer – the state’s regulated ‘fair price for electricity’ – will see a small increase of around $4 a month from 1 September following a decision by the state regulator.
The Minister for Public Transport asked us to conduct a review and provide a report on a 'fixed fare per head' pricing structure for a proposed late-night, share-ride taxi pilot program in Geelong.
The objective of the pilot service was to both grow the Geelong taxi market and to maximise taxi occupancy by providing an incentive for passengers to share a high occupancy taxi with others travelling in the same general direction. The scheme was to operate from the Safe Rank on
Penalty notices
13 July 2021
Origin Energy penalty notices 2021 (wrongful disconnection)
(pdf, 1.24 MB)
Further information