On 16 June 1998, the Premier of New South Wales issued a special reference under section 12A of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal Act, 1992, instructing the Tribunal to report on the appropriate pricing of:
a) government monopoly electricity transmission and distribution services (provided by TransGrid and energy distributors) for the five year period from 1 July 1999
b) government monopoly electricity services provided to franchise customers (by energy distributors) for the period from July 1999.