Households in parts of Victoria’s south-east will get a temporary reprieve from planned water price rises with South Gippsland Water limiting increases to inflation only till later this year.
Victorian energy consumers and industry stakeholders are encouraged to have their say on how the energy regulator sets a fair price for the next Victorian Default Offer which is set to commence on 1 January 2021.
New data shows Victorians worried about paying electricity bills because of the coronavirus pandemic have been reaching out to electricity retailers with around 10,000 calls for help every week for the past few months.
The Essential Services Commission says data from Victorian electricity retailers shows 116,805 calls for help were made to retailers between 30 March and 31 May 2020.
The commission’s energy director Sarah McDowell says the number of calls highlights the importance of having the right
The state energy regulator is looking at how to turn the lights on faster at new Victorian housing developments.
Victorian energy consumers can now sign up to a new energy deal with the assurance that prices won’t increase more than once every 12 months, with new rules taking effect today.
Energy companies are keeping customers connected to power during the coronavirus pandemic, but thousands of households are putting off paying their energy bills according to new data obtained by the state’s energy regulator.
Learning how to live ‘differently’ until an effective vaccine is available while preventing energy debt from getting out of control and protecting the most vulnerable were the key messages heard at a roundtable hosted by the state’s energy regulator today.
… “these maximum surcharges will promote efficiency in the non-cash payment transaction industry while allowing businesses to recover the reasonable cost of accepting and processing such transactions,” he said. mr crudden said the two-tiered pricing structure was the best way to promote efficiency in the non-cash payment transaction industry and promote the long-term interests of victorian consumers. “if we continued with a single maximum surcharge that allowed cost recovery associated
Federal and state energy regulators are keeping an eye on payment plan, hardship, disconnection and credit collection figures as energy businesses are called upon to put customers first during the current global health crisis.
The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) and the Essential Services Commission of Victoria today launched a joint effort to collect data to rigorously monitor the ability for energy customers to pay their energy bills in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
Wednesday 22 April, 3:00-4:30pm (via Zoom)
Essential Services Commission chair Kate Symons hosted an urgent roundtable with more than 60 energy industry representatives as well as the industry's peak bodies and government today to hear directly about how coronavirus is affecting the sector.
Representatives from the electricity and gas industry attended the forum to speak to commissioners about the impact of the virus.
Thursday 21 May, 3-4:30pm (via Zoom)
Essential Services Commission chairperson Kate Symons hosted a third community roundtable with 52 participants from community sector organisations and government. Participants shared insights into how coronavirus is impacting on the Victorian community and what trends are emerging.
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.
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.
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
… victorian default offer price review 2022–23 we have set the victorian default offer prices to apply from 1 july 2022 to 30 june 2023. average annual bills for default offer customers will go up by about five per cent for both residential and small business customers. breadcrumb home initial consultation november 2021 2021-11-26 submissions close 3 february 2022 2022-02-03 draft decision 15 march 2022 2022-03-15 online public forum late march 2022 2022-03-31 submissions close 12 april
Read our media release
17 March 2022
Two Victorian energy retailers pay almost $2m for allegedly failing to meet energy efficiency obligations
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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