National Electricity Amendment (Economic Regulation of Network Service Providers) Rule 2012

This submission outlines PIAC’s response to the Australian Energy Market Commission’s (AEMC) Directions Paper on proposed changes to the National Electricity Rules (NER) regarding the economic regulation of network service providers (NSPs). PIAC supports the proposed rule change which would limit the ability of an NSP to make a submission on its own regulatory proposal. PIAC submits that the NER should place the onus on NSPs to provide all important information as early as possible in the regulatory process, rather than having the option of waiting until they make submissions on their own proposals. This would allow stakeholders and regulators more time to effectively examine these extremely complicated issues. PIAC also argues in this submission that the NER should be amended to discourage NSPs as much as possible from claiming that some information in their regulatory proposals is commercial in confidence. This change would increase the transparency of the regulatory process in line with best practice in this area.