AER releases draft decision on our Combined Proposal

We are pleased to announce that we have received our draft decision from the Australian Energy Regulator (AER), detailing the funding needed to deliver safe, reliable and affordable electricity to Tasmanians for the coming 2024-2029 regulatory control period.

We welcome the AER’s draft decision to accept the proposed operating and capital expenditure forecasts contained in our Combined Proposal. The full Draft Decision is available at the AER’s website.

The development of our Combined Proposal was the culmination of several years of work by over 100 people from across our business and involved many more who worked with us to shape its development.

We are thankful for the time, energy and expertise of everyone involved in helping us reach this important milestone and are pleased to see the AER commend us for our genuine engagement program.

Our key priority in the development of our Combined Proposal has been to provide Tasmanians with clean and reliable power, as affordably as possible. While these are tough times for that mission, we’re committed to affordability more than ever.

While our customers and stakeholders remain clearly focused on affordability, proactive investment in renewables, a desire for state-wide reliability, and a transparent approach to sustainability are also key priority areas.

Developing a Proposal that balances these preferences in the current economic environment is both more complex and important than ever before and we have made significant trade-offs in our Combined Proposal to do so, while keeping costs as low as possible above all else.

Forecast revenue and price impacts have increased from the Combined Proposal due to corrections in depreciation tracking and movements in market variables such interest rates, bond rates and expected inflation. Updates for these movements are a standard part of the AER’s process.

Breakdown of AER’s draft decision

Next steps

The AER did not accept the proposed contingent project triggers and have identified this as an area for TasNetworks to further engage on. TasNetworks will continue to work with the AER to refine the triggers associated with each contingent project and engage with stakeholders on the associated price impacts.