January 13, 2014
Ergon Energy is inviting customers to have a say about the organisation’s current service delivery, future direction and tariff prices.
The State Government-owned corporation – which has been flagged for privatisation – is currently preparing its expenditure proposal for the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) for its next five year regulatory period from 2015 to 2020.
The AER, which regulates the Australian electricity industry, sets the revenue Ergon Energy is allowed to collect for the use of the network. It is seeking a broader, more co-ordinated approach to incorporating customers’ concerns into the capital and operational expenditure forecasts of electricity companies in the Australian energy market.
“This fits well with our ‘customer-driven’ focus,” Ergon Chief Executive Ian McLeod said.
“We want to provide our customers and the communities they live in the opportunity to express their views and concerns and give them a chance to influence the decisions we make that impact their lives.
Ergon has set up an online survey which is open to the end of this month.
“A lot has been said about the impact our costs have on electricity prices, so it’s important our customers understand what we’re doing about it and have a chance to have their say.
“For the last six months we’ve also been specifically seeking customer input on the way our network tariff prices are structured and charged to help us provide our customers with better ‘time-of-use’ pricing signals, more choice and control.
“Most of our current tariffs are not set up to encourage energy use at the right time – they don’t reward customers with the right price for shifting their usage.
“We need fundamental change to bring our customers’ needs and Ergon’s into alignment and to unlock the economic value of the network for all, improving its utilisation and lowering the price of the services we offer.”
Mr McLeod said it was expected that a number of the network tariff changes being proposed could be in place for the 2014-15 financial year, with further tariff reform to be implemented over the 2015-2020 period.
“In the last 30 years or so the way we use electricity in the home and in business and industry has changed, so it makes sense to review these to better reflect the needs of Queenslanders,” he said.
“If we can encourage our customers to move more discretionary electricity use in to non-peak times or store energy on off-peak times to utilise later at peak, then we can improve the efficiency of the existing network and reduce the need to spend significant amounts of money upgrading it.
“This reduces our revenue requirements and therefore eases the upward pressures on price.”
Ergon’s submission to the AER is due in October.
