Community Hub
The Electricity Distribution Price Review (EDPR) is a process undertaken every 5 years, and overseen by the Australian Energy Regulator, that determines the services we will deliver and the prices we charge customers for our network services.
Customer and stakeholder engagement is central to the price review process, especially as many of our customers will interact with our network in new ways in the coming years – for example, exporting energy, charging their vehicles and switching to electricity as a source of heat.
In addition to our ongoing engagement activities, we are preparing for and holding important conversations with our electricity customers and stakeholders throughout 2023 and 2024.
Our engagment plan is a ‘living’ document, which outlines the engagement we will undertake on our EDPR 2026-31 program until we submit our proposal to the AER in early 2025.
We both recognise, and support, this document changing over time, as customer and other stakeholders begin their engagement activities with us, and as environmental circumstances continue to change. Updates to this document will be shared via the EDPR 2026-31 pages on Community Hub throughout 2023, 2024 and 2025.
View earlier versions of our engagement plan:
Our EDPR 2026-31 Engagement plan is the result of a co-design process with customer representatives and other stakeholders, and which builds on:
You can read the report from the co-design workshop, which helped us build and develop our engagement plan.
A key feature of our engagement approach is a series of panels and a Co-ordination Group:
The Coordination Group is made up of 6 members who are also members of one or more panels.
The group oversees a number of tasks including identifying and raising conflicts or overlaps between panels, and works collaboratively with AusNet to identify value-stacking opportunities.
Understanding our customers' preferences regarding network reliability, resilience and availability, and ensure our investment plans appropriately balance affordability and reliability.
Understanding the service levels customers value and expect, including how customers want to interact with us and how that might change in the future.
Understanding our customers' preferences around new technologies, including the best ways the network can unlock more value for all customers.
Understanding how we can best design and implement network pricing that reflects customer behaviour and how customers interact with electricity.
Understanding AusNet's benchmarking performance and implications for the review proposal for consumer outcomes.
The Research and Engagement panel works across all panels to ensure they have access to customer insights needed for their discussions. The Research and Engagement panel also participates in designing research and engagement activities and assists with prioritising resources.
Learn more about the customer workshops we're running across our electricity distribution network and other opportunities for customers and communities to engage with us as we develop our 5-year plan for the electricity distribution network.
As outlined in the Letter of Agreement, panel members agree to declare all actual, perceived or potential conflicts of interest. Should a conflict of interest arise, members are asked to notify AusNet as soon as possible, disclose the conflict, and take steps that AusNet advises to manage or resolve the conflict. AusNet maintains a Conflict of Interest Register that records these disclosures, as well as actions taken in response to their disclosure.
To find out more, visit AusNet's Code of Conduct.
