The roundtable sessions engaged with customers from special interest groups such as local councils, community advocacy groups and sustainability groups to understand support for both the overarching proposal, including the bill impact, as well as initiatives that have been developed by the business based on customer feedback from earlier engagements.

The initiatives included:

• Energy Transition
• Metering
• Customer Assistance Package
• Innovation Fund

The purpose of the program was to identify initiative refinements to be considered in the final regulatory proposal submission. We partnered with CitiPower, Powercor and independent, third-party engagement experts at Forethought to deliver this program.

What we heard

• Customers wanted to ensure renters, and short term-residents did not get left behind in the energy transition, and favoured low-cost solutions over expensive augmentation
• Customers strongly supported proactive meter replacement of aging meters, placing emphasis on the need for an immediate start in the next reset to acquire benefits
• Customers strongly supported the customer assistance package initiatives, highlighting the importance of accountability tracking and communication of outcomes, as well as building strong partnerships to deliver greater impact and ensure access to vulnerable customers
• Customers felt that the timing of the innovation fund investment spend was essential, recommending that investment should be front loaded in the next regulatory period to reap benefits as early as possible.

What’s next

Outcomes from the roundtable report are being used to refine initiatives being built into the final 2026-2031 regulatory proposal, due for submission to the Australian Energy Regulator in January 2025.

There will be opportunities to get involved and have your say in 2025.

Visit the Regulatory Reset project page and click +Follow at the top of this page to receive email updates.