Victorian Energy Market Report

We have closely monitored the sector for compliance with Victoria’s energy rules as the impacts of last year’s high wholesale energy prices start to flow through to retail markets. From October to December 2022 we:

• issued 11 warning / education letters
• conducted 30 actions to promote compliance
• provided 150 responses to customer enquiries.

We reviewed how well retailers are complying with their obligation to tell customers - via their bills - whether they are on their retailers best offer. We also made progress on our bill change alert compliance program which reviewed the way retailers informed customers affected by price changes.

Retailers paid compensation of over $125,000 to customers for wrongful disconnections.

The latest data on consumers entering payment assistance indicated an increase in the average number of customers accessing tailored assistance each month in 2022–23 when compared to the previous financial year.

Customers who are receiving assistance under the Payment Difficulty Framework are protected from being disconnected. We continue to closely monitor disconnection trends and engage directly with energy businesses where there are concerns relating to retailers’ disconnection processes.

After a turbulent period of record high prices in the wholesale electricity and gas markets in 2022 and the exit of several energy retailers from the market, we are increasing the scrutiny of electricity and gas retail licence applications in Victoria.

These measures are intended to ensure that new retailers entering the Victorian market are sufficiently resilient to withstand wholesale market volatility.