Market design needs to evolve to serve the long-term interests of Australian households and small businesses in a future energy system that offers better than the past. At the same time, we recognise that market design is not everything. Business culture, government policy, the adequacy of the safety-net and trust provide a critical context for any market and shape outcomes for consumers. This bigger picture becomes even more important and complicated in times of transition and uncertainty.

Energy Consumers Australia is the national voice for residential and small business energy consumers. Established by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Energy Council in 2015, our objective is to promote the long-term interests of energy consumers with respect to the price, quality, reliability, safety and security of supply.

This is Energy Consumers Australia’s second major submission to the Energy security Board (ESB) on the Post 2025 Market Design work program, following our September 2019 response to the Issues Paper. In that submission we outlined our vision for a future energy system and a framework for getting there.

The ESB has progressed its thinking in the last 12 months, with detail emerging about a package of inter-related market design initiatives in the Consultation Paper. In this submission we comment on the design issues most directly relevant to the experience of household and small business energy consumers in the future energy system through the lens of the framework we discussed in our first submission. Importantly, we also reflect on what the COVID-19 pandemic, and the summer bushfires, means for the way we think about and design of the future energy system, the design of markets and the challenges in managing the transition.

The full submission can be read here.