Consumer Rights Boost for Electricity Customers
Legislation designed to strengthen consumer rights for all electricity customers has passed State Parliament.
The changes cater for the growth in technology and new business models that have led to some forms of electricity supply becoming largely unregulated with few protections for consumers.
Among others, this could affect people who buy their electricity through an embedded network. These can operate in apartment buildings, retirement villages
or shopping centres.
Energy Minister Reece Whitby said: "This Bill represents a significant step forward for electricity customers in Western Australia.
"It will create a new, flexible, and fit-for-purpose mechanism to support customer protection in the electricity market."
Amendments to the Electricity Industry Act 2004 will help ensure many households
and businesses, such as those in embedded electricity networks, pay a fair price
and get transparent information about their electricity supply.
Central to this is the creation of the Alternative Electricity Services registration framework, which enables a flexible approach to regulating new electricity services
and business models, overseen by the Economic Regulation Authority.
The framework also allows tailored and fit-for-purpose customer protections to be applied to each regulated service.
Under the new AES registration framework, customers of new and emerging electricity services can be given access to many of the protections already in place for
traditional electricity customers, such as independent dispute resolution through the Energy and Water Ombudsman.
Energy Policy WA is involved is consultation on the changes on the best way to give standard electricity rights to customers:
- Who buy their electricity through an embedded network, like an apartment building, retirement village or shopping centre; or
- Who have an on-site power supply arrangement (OPSA), where a business owns an energy system on the customer’s property and the customer is entitled
to use the energy from the system.
The purpose of the consultation is to determine whether these services should be regulated under the new AES framework.
To learn more, visit www.wa.gov.au/sharingthepower.