What is the Regulatory Proposal?
Essential Energy is responsible for operating and maintaining the electricity distribution network to more than 890,000 customers across 95% of NSW and parts of southern QLD – this is funded through charges that form part of the power bill issued by your electricity retailer.
Each bill covers everything from electricity generation to transmission, distribution, retail and government charges. Essential Energy’s responsibility is the distribution network charges, and these make up around 38 per cent of a typical residential bill.
Essential Energy’s business is regulated by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) under the National Electricity Rules (NER). This means most of our distribution services are subject to revenue and price controls determined by the AER, with these being reset every five years.
2024-29 Regulatory Proposal
Building a shared energy future
Our vision is to empower communities to share and use energy for a better tomorrow.
Our 2024-29 Regulatory Proposal outlined how we plan to operate and maintain NSW’s largest electricity distribution network from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2029 - including solutions to tackle key customer and stakeholder concerns such as realising the benefits of the energy transition and increasing community and network resilience.
How was the Proposal developed?
Consultation is at the heart of how we do business. To develop the Proposal we engaged with more than 400 people in a multi-phased program of customer and stakeholder engagement, which commenced in July 2021.
Customers told us they want to see Essential Energy embrace the growth of renewable energy generation and storage, so we will continue to invest in new technologies and building smarter networks. They also wanted to us to improve the resilience of our network and our communities, to mitigate the influence of climate change.
AER Final Decision
The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has made its final decision on Essential Energy’s electricity determination for the 2024-29 regulatory period.
The AER accepted Essential Energy’s expenditure plans for the next five years which were informed and supported by our customers, while also considering the impact of external factors on Essential Energy’s revenue including increases to interest rates and inflation.
Investing in the future
A key focus will be building the network for the future through new systems to further enable increasing levels of consumer energy resources, such as rooftop solar. This is in addition to investing in resilience to support the economic growth of our 1,500 regional, rural and remote communities. These investments include composite poles, providing a portable community hub, portable streetlights and stand-alone power systems for use during significant weather and network events, as well as the installation of standalone power systems and microgrids on the network.
We are transforming our business to adapt to the future, while continuing to deliver on customers’ priorities around safety, reliability, and affordability. We want to ensure that our network is both resilient and flexible enough to accommodate new and emerging technologies.
Find out more
For all relevant documents visit our 2024-29 Determination page on the AER website
2024-29 Revised Regulatory Proposal
2024-29 Revised Regulatory Proposal Overview
2024-29 Revised Tariff Structure Statement
2024-29 Revised Tariff Structure Explanatory Statement
