Regulatory Proposal 2024-29

Mother and daughter standing in front of house

What is the Regulatory Proposal?

Essential Energy is responsible for operating and maintaining the electricity distribution network to more than 880,000 customers across 95% of NSW and parts of southern QLD – this is funded through charges that form part of the power bill issued by your electricity retailer.

Each bill covers everything from electricity generation to transmission, distribution, retail and government charges. Essential Energy’s responsibility is the distribution network charges, and these make up around 38 per cent of a typical residential bill.

Essential Energy’s business is regulated by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) under the National Electricity Rules (NER). This means most of our distribution services are subject to price controls determined by the AER, with prices set every five years.

2024-29 Regulatory Proposal

Building a shared energy future

Our vision is to empower communities to share and use energy for a better tomorrow.

Our 2024-29 Regulatory Proposal outlines how we will operate and maintain NSW’s largest electricity distribution network from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2029 and includes plans to tackle key customer and stakeholder concerns, including realising the benefits of the energy transition and increasing community and network resilience.

How was the Proposal developed?

Consultation is at the heart of how we do business. To develop the Proposal we engaged with more than 400 people in a multi-phased program of customer and stakeholder engagement, which commenced in July 2021.

Customers told us they want to see Essential Energy embrace the growth of renewable energy generation and storage, so through the Proposal we will continue to invest in new technologies and building smarter networks.

We are transforming our business to adapt to the future, while continuing to deliver on customers’ priorities around safety, reliability, and affordability. We want to ensure that our network is both resilient and flexible enough to accommodate new and emerging technologies.

Investing in the future

From 1 July 2024 we propose key investments including:

$314 million in community and network resilience to weather extremes, including strategic deployment of fireproof (composite) power poles, microgrids and stand-alone power systems
$171 million in new technologies to support customers to access more renewable energy and increasing electrification such as increase the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs), solar and batteries.

Have your say on the Proposal

The AER welcomes submissions from interested parties on any part of the Proposal. For information on providing submissions, read the Essential Energy – Determination 2024-29 page on the AER website.