The Australian Energy Market Commission has made a final determination not to make a rule on the use of estimated meter reads when a small customer with a manually-read meter transfers to a new electricity retailer.

An efficient transfer process that supports customer choice is a critical component of a competitive retail energy market. The Commission’s analysis found that recent developments in the energy market, particularly a reduction in transfer times, are helping to improve the efficiency of the transfer process. In addition, transfer times should continue to improve as more advanced meters are installed across the market as a result of the Commission’s Competition in Metering rule change determination issued in November 2015.

Given these improvements, and taking into account the costs and complexity of implementing a new process for estimated meter readings, the Commission considers that the proposed rule change is not warranted.

The Commission will continue to monitor customer transfer statistics to check that transfer times continue to reduce over time.

This rule change request, received from the COAG Energy Council, flows from the AEMC’s Review of Electricity Customer Switching which found issues with the timeliness and accuracy of customer transfers. 

Media: Communication Manager, Prudence Anderson 0404 821 935 or (02) 8296 7817