10 Jun 2016
Final decisions on changes in regulated retail gas prices from 1 July 2016
Today IPART has released a final report for the review of regulated retail gas prices from 1 July 2016. Our final decisions apply to just under 20% of residential and small business customers who remain on regulated prices under a standard contract with one of the Standard Retailers in NSW – AGL, ActewAGL and Origin Energy.
Under our final decisions, regulated retail gas prices will increase by 0.3% on average across NSW from 1 July 2016, which is less than the rate of inflation. The average change varies between -7.5% and 0.8% in the Standard Retailer’s individual supply areas.
From 1 July, most residential customers on regulated prices will see a small increase in their annual bills ranging up to $7. However, ActewAGL’s customers in the Queanbeyan and Capital regions will see a reduction of $89 and $5, respectively, in their annual bills.
Our final decisions are based on pricing proposals submitted by AGL and Origin Energy in January 2016, and a revised pricing proposal provided by ActewAGL in April 2016. We undertook analysis and commissioned expert advice to assess these proposals, and made final decisions to agree to each of these proposals.
Average price changes under our final decision are lower than our draft decision. This is because our updated forecast of inflation in 2016-17 is lower than under our draft inflation. Also, final gas network prices in the Queanbeyan area are substantially lower than we estimated for our draft decision. As a result, regulated prices in ActewAGL’s Queanbeyan region will decrease by 7.5% under our final decision compared to a 0.5% increase under our draft decision.