Welcome to our Regulatory Determination Project page. This page is for customers and other stakeholders interested in keeping updated on our engagement activities for our investment and revenue recovery plans for 2025 to 2030. At Ergon Energy Network and Energex, as Queensland's electricity distributors, communications and engagement with our customers and stakeholders is a fundamental aspect of our daily operations.

About us

Ergon Energy Network delivers electricity to more than 761,000 homes and businesses across an area that spans 97 per cent of Queensland, while Energex delivers electricity to more than 1.6 million homes and businesses in South-East Queensland.

As Distribution Network Service Providers (DNSP) we are natural monopolies and, as such, are subject to economic regulation by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) under Chapter 6 of the National Electricity Rules. Under the current regulatory framework, every five years we submit Regulatory Proposals and Tariff Structure Statements to the AER, setting out, among other things, our proposed investment plans, revenue allowances and tariff structures for the coming five-year regulatory control period.

The AER Issues Paper - public forum (held on the 11th April 2024)

Over 80 people attended the AER Issues Paper, public forum as part of the AER’s consultation on the Ergon Energy Network and Energex Regulatory Proposals for 2025-30 submitted to the AER in January 2024.

As part of the public forum, we provided an overview of our investment and revenue recovery plans for 2025-30, addressing a variety of questions raised focused on our proposed capital expenditure and network tariff structures. For those interested, you can see our presentation here.

The AER will provide their Draft Determinations by 27 September. We'll be continuing our engagement with customers and stakeholders, incorporating the feedback we received today as we refine our Revised Regulatory Proposals for submission on 2 December 2024.

There's still time for you to have your say and provide your feedback to the AER. Submissions remain open until the 15th May 2024 (see the details below, including a link to the issues paper)

AER Issues Paper - Have your say The AER is currently evaluating our Regulatory Proposals, aiming to balance prudent and efficient investment with supporting the energy transition, while ensuring affordability for customers facing cost-of-living pressures. The AER has released an Issues Paper and are seeking feedback from our customers and stakeholders on specific areas of interest within our Proposals. This feedback will inform the AER's Draft Decisions, expected in September 2024. Your interest and participation has been invaluable in shaping our Regulatory Proposals, and we remain dedicated to delivering a clean, reliable, safe, and smart energy future for all Queenslanders affordably. To engage in the AER's consultation you can: submit written feedback by May 15, 2024, to energyqueensland2025@aer.gov.au, addressed to Gavin Fox, General Manager, or via mail to GPO Box 3131, Canberra ACT 2601. attend the AER's online public forum on April 11, 2024: registration details are available here, or click the picture on the left We encourage you to participate in the AER’s Issues Paper consultation so any additional thoughts and feedback you have can be captured and inform the process going forward.

RRG Engagement Reports now available - March 2024 The Reset Reference Group (RRG) is an independent advisory group, comprising three customer representatives from our Customer and Community Council together with two external regulatory and customer focused experts. We engaged the RRG to collaborate constructively with us in developing and implementing our Customer and Stakeholder Engagement Plan and to challenge us on our thinking in relation to investment and revenue recovery issues pertaining to our Regulatory Proposal. The RRG’s primary focus is to ensure that customer needs and preferences are of paramount consideration by our business. The RRG will produce a series of independent reports to the AER assessing us on various aspects of our engagement activities. Please see the Ergon Energy Network and Energex Engagement Reports, with Technical Issues Report to be provided to the AER in mid-May 2024.

Introducing our 2025-30 Regulatory Proposals and Tariff Structure Statements

On 31 January 2024, Ergon Energy Network and Energex submitted our Regulatory Proposals and Tariff Structure Statements to the AER for the 2025-30 regulatory control period.

Our Regulatory Proposals set out the forecast capital and operating expenditure we require to build, operate, and maintain our distribution networks and the revenue we intend to collect from our customers through network charges. Our Tariff Structure Statements explain the network tariffs we will apply to customers in the next five-year period to recover the total allowed revenue.

Our Regulatory Proposals and Tariff Structure Statements have been co-designed with our customers and stakeholders, over the past two years, and almost 800 hours of dedicated engagement. From the outset, our focus was to produce customer centric Regulatory Proposals that aligned closely with our customers' current and future needs and preferences.

Our customers told us affordability is their number one concern, and at the same, time they expect us to uphold reliability, resilience, service, and safety. With this in mind, we have sought to strike the right balance between investing in the network to provide clean, reliable, and smart electricity and efficiently delivering electricity services in the most affordable way.

“Ergon Energy Network and Energex are proposing future investments that balance our customers’ priorities, with a strong focus on affordability for everyone”, Peter Scott, Energy Queensland Chief Executive Officer

We are delighted to present our Regulatory Proposals for 2025-30. They are comprised of several interrelated elements, including:

These documents, which are accompanied by a range of supporting information, including detailed attachments, external reports and models, will be made available on the AER’s website in mid-February 2024.

Our Regulatory Proposals at a glance

Our 2025-30 Regulatory Proposals clearly set out our strategic direction for the 2025-2030 regulatory control period and have been summarised for each network business in the ‘Regulatory Proposal at a glance’ below.

*Note* Given the network component of a customer’s energy bill only accounts for approximately one third of the total bill, the net bill increases for an average residential customer, attributable to the forecast increase in network charges, will be 1.7 per cent based on the average annual household energy bill.

Our Ergon Energy Network 2025-30 Regulatory Proposal is also accompanied by an Ergon Energy Network Frequently Asked Questions.

*Note* Given the network component of a customer’s energy bill only accounts for approximately one third of the total bill, the net bill increases for an average residential customer, attributable to the forecast increase in network charges, will be 1.7 per cent based on the average annual household energy bill.

Our Energex 2025-30 Regulatory Proposal is also accompanied by an Energex Frequently Asked Questions.

What's next

The AER will assess our Regulatory Proposals and consult with interested parties before setting the efficient revenues and prices that we can recover from our customers for their use of our electricity distribution networks, over the period from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2030. The process of determining the efficient revenues and prices is referred to as the ‘Regulatory Determination’ or ‘Reset’ process. This revenue will form the distribution network component of customers’ retail electricity bills.

We encourage our customers, stakeholders and the wider community to make submissions to the AER as part of its consultation on our Regulatory Proposals, which will occur between March-May 2024. The AER will publish its draft decisions in September 2024 and a further opportunity will be provided for customers and stakeholders to comment.

We’ll continue engaging with our customers and stakeholders over the coming months, before submitting our revised Regulatory Proposal in December 2024.

Our Customer and Stakeholder Engagement Strategy and Engagement Plan

Our Regulatory Proposals and Tariff Structure Statements have been developed with input from our customers and stakeholders over the past two years, and almost 800 hours of dedicated engagement activity at time of submission. From the outset, our focus was to produce customer centric Regulatory Proposals that align closely with our customers' current and future needs and preferences.

Developing Regulatory Proposals is a significant undertaking and involves multiple teams across Ergon Energy Network and Energex, working in close partnership with our customers, communities, and other stakeholders.

Building on our business-as-usual engagement activities, we set out to explore how we could best understand Queensland’s future energy needs with our customers and other stakeholders. In late 2022, we invited a range of interested customers and stakeholders to co-design a Customer and Stakeholder Engagement Strategy and subsequently in consultation with our Customer and Community Council agreed a Customer and Stakeholder Engagement Plan to bring our strategy to life.

Additionally, to facilitate in depth exploration on key aspects of our investment and revenue recovery plans we established the Ergon Energy Network and Energex Reset Reference Group (RRG). The RRG has challenged us on our thinking to ensure customers interests were paramount, and the engagement process was authentic, and insights obtained were reflected in our decision-making process.

Following the submission of our Regulatory Proposals to the AER in January 2024, we have completed Phases 1-4 of our engagement plan (see above). Phase 5 ‘Finalise’ of our engagement plan has now commenced as we prepare to respond to feedback on our Regulatory Proposals, ahead of submitting revised Regulatory Proposals in December 2024.

Our Phases 1-4 engagement activities have been summarised in our Ergon Energy Network Engagement Summary Report and our Energex Engagement Summary Report.

As outlined in the documents provided, all documentation relating to the various engagement activities can be found in our Document Library (opposite).

Should you require any additional information about our 2025-30 Regulatory or the consultation process please email: RDP2025Connect@energyq.com.au