The goal was to identify:

• key motivators, and barriers that influence customer willingness to modify energy consumption habits
• customer awareness, understanding, and responsiveness to time-of-use energy tariffs, acceptance of network control, preferences on meter upgrading and feedback on overall investments being built into the regulatory proposal.

What customers told us

• Shifting consumption habits: compared to SMB customers, residential customers were more willing to shift their energy usage. Lowering energy bills and government incentives were the main motivator to shift for both residential and SMB customers. Both residential and SMB customers also said their current activities were their main barriers

• Electrification: less than a quarter of residential customers said they would consider electrifying their gas appliances in the near future with half of SMB customers likely to consider it

• Time of use tariffs: across both Residential and SMB customers, around half were familiar with the concept of time-of-use tariffs

• Network control: more than half of residential customers were unwilling to allow external network control compared to 2 in 5 SMB customers. Price related factors were the biggest incentives for both residential and SMB customers

• Meter upgrades: both residential and SMB customers preferred for metres to be proactively replaced to prevent failures

• Overall investment: around half of both residential and SMB customers felt that the bill impact from the improvements represented value for the service they received.

What’s next

Outcomes from the survey report are being used to refine investments 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.