Inquiry into retail electricity prices and supply

Overview

The Treasurer has directed the ACCC to hold an inquiry into the retail supply of electricity and the competitiveness of retail electricity markets in the National Electricity Market.

The National Electricity Market is the wholesale market that covers Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.

The ACCC has been directed to consider a number of matters, including:

• the costs that contribute to a retail electricity bill and how this has changed over time
• factors impacting on competition in the retail electricity markets
• impediments to consumer choice, including transaction costs and lack of transparent information
• how different customer groups impact on the behaviour of electricity retailers.

The ACCC has released an issues paper and is seeking submissions from interested parties. The paper sets out the key issues that the ACCC will focus on during its inquiry, including:

• prices, costs and profits – the types of costs that contribute to a retail electricity bill and the risks involved in electricity retailing
• level of competition – the current level of competition, ways that retailers compete and barriers to competition
• impediments to consumers engaging with the market and ways that this can be improved.

For further detail on the inquiry and information on how customers can engage with the process please refer to the attached information sheet.

How to make a submission

Submissions should be emailed to retailelectricityinquiry@accc.gov.au by 30 June 2017.

The ACCC prefers to receive submissions in electronic form, either in PDF or Microsoft Word format, which allows the submission to be text searched.

Confidentiality

The inquiry is a public process and written feedback will generally be posted on the ACCC website.

The Competition and Consumer Act 2010 allows interested parties that provide written feedback to the inquiry to make claims for confidentiality if the disclosure of information would damage their competitive position.

Further information on confidentiality is set out in the ACCC issues paper.