Submissions

The Australian Energy Market Commission’s consultation considers the gas connection arrangements currently set out in the NGR as well as gas connection charges, temporary disconnections and permanent abolishments. EWOQ contributed to a joint response with EWON and EWOSA which generally supported the proposal to charge gas customers for the costs of the services – connection, temporary disconnection and permanent abolishment – that can be directly attributed to them compared to spreading the costs across all gas consumers. We however encouraged governments to provide appropriate and targeted funding to those gas consumers experiencing vulnerable circumstances who wish to permanently disconnect from the gas market where they can’t afford the abolishment cost.

• Read about the consultation
• Read our submission.

Following the Australian Energy Regulator’s Review of payment difficulty protections in the National Energy Customer Framework, the Regulator proposed to increase the minimum disconnection amount from $300 to $500 to better reflect a quarterly bill. We supported a joint response with EWON and EWOSA supporting the changes.

• Read about the proposal
• Submission to be published. 

EWOQ led the development of a joint response with EWON and EWOSA which welcomed the development of the draft Smart Meter Customer Code which has been co-designed through the collaboration of consumer representatives including EWOs, energy retailers, energy distributors and metering providers and supported by the Energy Charter.

• Read about the draft code
• Submission to be published. 

EWOQ provided feedback to Queensland Treasury on its review of the Regulation which is due to expire on 1 September 2025, to ensure it continues to serve its intended purpose.

• Read about the review
• Submission to be published. 

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) released their Draft Determination on improving consumer protections for customers on retail energy plans. EWOQ collaborated with EWON and EWOSA on a joint response broadly supporting the proposed changes.

• Read about the Draft Determination.
• Read our submission. 

EWOQ commented on the Australian Energy Regulator’s (AER) draft decision for its Review of the exemptions framework for embedded networks, along with amendments to the Network Exemptions Guideline and Retail Exempt Selling Guideline. The draft decision provided proposed changes to improve the level of protections for customers and to increase the AER’s visibility and compliance oversight over exempt entities. One of the key proposed changes we supported was the introduction of practical family violence protections for exempt customers.

• Read about the draft decision.
• Submission to be published. 

The Australian Energy Market Commission release their Draft Determination on the proposed changes to assist customer in hardship. EWOQ, EWOSA and EWON collectively reviewed the Draft Determination and generally supported the three key proposed changes to assist customers in hardship which included:

1. A new principle that requires retailers to ensure that customers on their affordability program pay no more than the deemed better offer, through either providing a financial benefit to the customer when they are not on the deemed better offer or obtaining explicit informed consent from the customer to be moved onto the deemed better offer.
2. A requirement that retailers explicitly state in their affordability policy that they will check and offer the deemed better offer, both upfront upon a customer entering an affordability program and at least once every 100 days or in line with an agreed billing cycle with the customer.
3. The addition of new affordability program indicators to be reported to the AER by retailers.

• Read about the Draft Determination.
• Read our submission. 

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) proposed a rule change which seeks to improve the application of concessions to bills by requiring retailers to proactively seek information from consumers on their eligibility for energy concessions or rebates. EWOQ led a joint response with EWON and EWOSA on the proposed rule change.

• Read about the proposed rule change.
• Read our submission. 

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) published a consultation paper which sough to improve the ability of customers to switch to a better offer.

EWOQ supported a joint response with EWON and EWOSA on this consultation. We suggested the scope of the review needed to be broader and streamlined processes considered for customers switching retailers to accept a better offer.

• Read about the consultation.
• Read our submission. 

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) published a directions paper proposing a framework to enable access to real-time data from their energy meter.

EWOQ contributed to a joint submission with EWON and EWOSA on the directions paper which proposed a framework to enable improved access to real time data from smart meters.

• Read about the consultation.
• Read our submission.