Energy resilience is a major concern for many households and small businesses, especially as climate change is altering the nature, location, and frequency of severe weather events.
Our June 2024 Energy Consumer Sentiment Survey finds that 62% of households and 60% of small businesses are concerned about the increased frequency of electricity outages in the next three years, due to such events.
Our submission to the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC)’s Draft Determination is part of a larger consultation process, which was initiated last year, in response to a rule change request submitted by the Honourable Lily D’Ambrosio MP, Victorian Minister for Energy and Resources.
We appreciate this initiative, which has drawn attention to the likelihood and consequences of prolonged blackouts and the need to build a resilient network.
But we’re also concerned that the proposed framework for distribution network resilience expenditure may not necessarily ensure better consumer outcomes.
Our recommendations
We reiterate recommendations made in our previous submission, and recommend that:
- The AEMC considers that community resilience and preparedness is a shared responsibility and requires the AER guidelines to account for the role of consumer energy resources in enhancing energy resilience.
- The AEMC provides greater clarity regarding the scope of events to be covered in the future AER guidelines.
- The AEMC requires the AER to consider alternative approaches for a cost-benefit analysis for resilience investments.
- The AEMC’s final rule requires the guidelines to adopt a “Use-It Or Lose-It’ (UOILI) framework to ensure any unspent resilience expenditure be returned to consumers.
- The AEMC requires DNSPs to disclose whether impacted infrastructure was ever subject to an ex ante investment review in their resilience reporting requirements.
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