The Electricity Generation and Retail Corporation (EGRC) regulatory scheme was put in place to manage the merger of Verve Energy and Synergy, which became the Electricity Generation and Retail Corporation, trading as Synergy, on 1 January 2014.
The EGRC regulatory scheme includes requirements for ring-fencing, business segregation, transfer pricing, non-discriminatory wholesale electricity trading and the provision of standard products.
Each year, the ERA reviews the operation of the EGRC regulatory scheme and prepares a report for the Minister for Energy assessing its effectiveness and making recommendations for improvements.
Review of Synergy's Regulatory Scheme 2017
The ERA has completed its fourth review of the scheme for 2017.
We received four submissions in response to our issues paper that we published on 13 March 2018.
The report was delivered to the Minister for Energy on 9 January 2019 and it was tabled in Parliament on 8 May 2019.
The ERA found deficiencies in each of the main elements of the Synergy regulatory scheme. The recommendations for improvement include changes to improve pricing discipline and opportunities for contracting in wholesale supplies, and broadening the non-discrimination requirements. The ERA has also recommended greater transparency in Synergy’s financial reporting sufficient to expose any anti-competitive behaviour.
