The Economic Regulation Authority has issued Synergy with a second compliance enforcement notice for breaching its retail licence obligations under the Code of Conduct for the Supply of Electricity Customers 2022.
Synergy’s breach is for failing to notify customers of overcharges on closed accounts within10 business days of becoming aware of those overcharges.
The ERA issued Synergy with a compliance notice for a similar breach in July 2025.
This second, much larger breach was discovered as a result of that first compliance investigation, when in late June Synergy self-reported to the ERA that it had discovered a wider set of overpayments.
Since then, Synergy has been working with the ERA to gather data on the extent of the breach, and the exact number of customers affected.
Synergy has now confirmed that it has received 174,522 overpayments on closed accounts totalling$40.42 million since 2009.
The ERA’s compliance enforcement notice applies only to 16,092 of those overpayments, totalling almost $3.6 million, as this particular type of breach was only defined in the Code in February 2023.
The average amount owed to customers is around $200 per account, but a small number of customers are owed as much as $5,000.
Other retailers
Separately, the ERA has also investigated the conduct of other electricity and gas retailers in Western Australia to determine whether this issue is more widespread.
While we have found some evidence of overcharges, we have also confirmed that all other retailers have processes in place to ensure refunds are identified and issued in a timely manner.
Therefore, we have not taken compliance action against any other retailers.