Access Arrangement for Period 2020-2024

On 31 August 2018, ATCO Gas Australia Pty Ltd submitted a proposed revised access arrangement for the Mid-West to South-West Gas Distribution Systems (GDS). The Access Arrangement period is due to commence 1 January 2020 and finish 31 December 2024. This will be the fifth access arrangement period (AA5).

The GDS consists of gas networks servicing Geraldton, Bunbury, Busselton, Harvey, Pinjarra, Brunswick Junction, Capel and the Perth greater metropolitan area (including Mandurah). These combined networks supply approximately 750,000 customers through more than 14,000 kilometres of gas distribution pipelines.

On 11 October 2018, the ERA published an issues paper to assist interested parties in preparing submissions on the proposed revised access arrangement. The issues paper was not intended to be an exhaustive review of the proposed revised access arrangement or the matters that the ERA will address when making its draft decision on whether to approve or not approve the proposal. The ERA received six submissions by the deadline of 14 November 2018, and accepted a late submission from AGL Energy Limited.

On 18 April 2019, the ERA published its Draft Decision on the proposed revised access arrangement for the Mid-West and South-West Gas Distribution Systems. In response to the Draft Decision, ATCO submitted revisions to its proposal on 12 June 2019.

Interested parties were invited to make public submissions on the ERA’s Draft Decision and ATCO’s revised proposal. The ERA received eight submissions by the deadline of Wednesday, 10 July 2019. A late submission was received from ATCO on 30 July 2019.

The ERA commissioned Woollahra Partners to review the gas demand forecasts contained in ATCO’s response to the ERA draft decision. The ERA invited interested parties to make a submission on the findings from the Woollahra Partners report by 4:00 pm (WST) Monday, 16 September 2019. The submissions received are below.

On 15 November 2019, the ERA published its final decisions on the proposed revised access arrangement for the Mid-West and South-West Gas Distribution Systems. The ERA did not approve ATCO's proposed changes to the access arrangement and published a revised access arrangement and access arrangement information.

ERA revised Access Arrangement

Date	Documents	File type
15-Nov-19	Revised Access Arrangement	650 kB
15-Nov-19	Template Service Agreement	1.4 MB
15-Nov-19	Revised Access Arrangement Information	701 kB
15-Nov-19	Revised Access Arrangement Model	2.8 MB

Final decision on proposed revised Access Arrangement

Date	Documents	File type
15-Nov-19	Final decision	5.7 MB
15-Nov-19	Appendix 5 - Public tariff model	2.8 MB
15-Nov-19	EMCa report - Review of aspects of ATCO's 2020-24 revised plan	1 MB