30 Nov 2020
On Friday 27 November 2020, the Australian Energy Regulator provided its draft decision on Evoenergy’s plan for the 2021–26 gas network access arrangement, which was submitted for consideration earlier this year.
After reviewing our plan and consulting with industry and the public, the Australian Energy Regulator’s draft decision largely accepts what we have proposed, including introducing a reduction in gas network prices in the first year of the period while further work is undertaken to develop a roadmap to meet the ACT Government’s zero net greenhouse gas emissions target by 2045.
The Australian Energy Regulator recognised the complex challenges our gas network faces as we plan to reduce emissions in the gas network and has accepted our proposal to accelerate depreciation of our gas network assets within the ACT. The Australian Energy Regulator has requested further information on our revised plan to support our demand forecast, which it did not accept in the draft decision. We will continue to refine and update our forecast ahead of submitted our revised plan in January 2021.
Part of this work has been surveying the community to learn more about residential gas usage, and how it is likely to change over the next five years and beyond. We’ve received a significant response from the community and while we continue to analyse the feedback we’ve received, we can be confident that the findings of this research will give us a good understanding of customer views and intentions.
We appreciate the Australian Energy Regulator’s positive recognition of the work we have done to engage the community throughout the development of our plan, in particular our Citizens’ Jury. The feedback we have received from the community both through Citizens’ Jury and more recently through our gas usage survey has been invaluable to inform our plan and ensure the service we provide meets the needs of our customers in the future.
We’d like to thank the community for their ongoing engagement on our gas plan and we’d encourage everyone to have their say on the draft decision and our revised plan once it’s submitted to the Australian Energy Regulator next year. Consultation will be open until 17 February 2020.
For more information about the Australian Energy Regulator’s draft decision visit https://www.aer.gov.au/networks-pipelines/determinations-access-arrangements/evoenergy-access-arrangement-2021-26/draft-decision, or to find out more about the gas network access arrangement review process, visit www.evoenergy.com.au/about-us/about-our-network/gas-five-year-plan.
Background
Every five years, Evoenergy is required to submit to the Australian Energy Regulator how much it plans to spend operating, maintaining and investing in the gas network and how these costs should be recovered from gas consumers. The Australian Energy Regulator will review Evoenergy’s proposed plan submitted at the end of June 2020, with a draft decision expected in November 2020, ahead of the commencement of the next regulatory period on 1 July 2021.
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