An options paper from the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has been released, marking the first step in setting the 2022-23 Default Market Offer (DMO) prices.
The DMO price is the maximum price a retailer can charge a standing offer customer in south-east Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. It seeks to prevent retailers charging unjustifiably high prices to customer on standing offers, while maintaining market competition and participation.
The AER is reviewing the approach to setting the DMO to ensure it continues to meet the policy objectives.
The AER is seeking views on a number of aspects of the pricing methodology including how it:
- Takes into account retail costs, including how they change from year to year
- Approaches forecasting wholesale electricity costs should treat costs to serve customers with advanced meters, or customers on time of use tariffs
- Sets ‘model annual usage’, including ensuring residential and small business annual usage benchmarks are ‘broadly representative’
The AER invites people to register for an online forum at 1.30pm – 3.30pm Wednesday 10 November 2021.
At the forum, the AER will outline key matters discussed in the options paper and respond to stakeholder questions. Register attendance before 5 November 2021.
The draft 2022-23 DMO will be released in early 2022 for consultation, with the final published by May 2022 to come into effect on 1 July 2022.
For more information on how to make a submission on the options paper, click here.
