Evoenergy has welcomed consultation for its draft 2024-29 network regulatory determination, prior to its submission to the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) in January 2023.
Now released, the draft plan was informed by a year-long engagement with community, and proposes new investment in Canberra’s electricity network along with proposed network tariffs, which Evoenergy said will reflect customers’ changing energy habits.
Every five years, Evoenergy is required to submit to the AER how much it plans to spend operating, maintaining and investing in the electricity network, and how these costs should be recovered from electricity consumers
Consultation on Evoenergy’s draft plan for the 2024-29 electricity network regulatory determination will be open for five weeks until 30 September 2022.
Evoenergy General Manager, Peter Billing, said although the company has decades of experience in network planning, developing the electricity network plan for the coming five-year period has come at a time of rapid and significant change.
“We’re committed to delivering the services we have heard our customers want and need as we work with the community to achieve net zero emissions by 2045, and we know network planning in the short, medium and long term is going to be critical to achieve this target,” Mr Billing said.
“Today we’ve released our draft plan for how we invest in and operate the electricity network in 2024-29.
“Our focus is to ensure we are ready for the changing needs of our growing city through new electricity network investment that establishes a solid foundation for the ongoing energy transition, whilst also keeping costs as low as possible.
“In coming years, there’s going to be more solar, electric vehicles, batteries, and increasing demand for electricity, which must be all underpinned by a strong distribution network.
“We forecast that there will need to be an increase in the network costs that will be passed onto electricity consumers during the period, resulting in an increase of around $19 per year (plus the impacts of inflation) for an average residential energy user.”
