Energy Consumers Australia appreciates the opportunity to provide feedback on the Australian Energy Regulator (AER)’s Draft Customer Engagement Toolkit (the ‘Toolkit’).
Our submission includes four recommendations aimed at making this Toolkit a truly powerful resource, that sets high expectations for how energy businesses can do better by their most vulnerable customers and promote positive change in the energy industry.
Our recommendations are:
- To improve business practices and assess efficacy of the Toolkit, the proposed practices should be linked to metrics and benchmarks monitored by the AER in its performance reporting procedures and guideline.
- To ensure that the Toolkit is used, secure explicit agreement from energy businesses that they will implement the better practice principles and provide reports that are public.
- To be effective, the Toolkit needs to be very clear on the obligations of each of the different areas within an energy retailer or service provider.
- That small business energy hardship also be considered.
Read the full submission here.