The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has announced the establishment of the Consumer Challenge Panel as part of its ongoing approach to enhance engagement with consumers and their representatives.

The panel’s formation forms part of the Better Regulation program and forms a key component of the Council of Australian Government’s energy reform agenda agreed to in December last year.

The Panel will be staffed by experts who will be appointed to provide advice and input to the AER on network businesses revenue determinations and other key guidelines.

The role of the Panel is to:

  • assist in ensuring that the consumer view is more fully considered as part of our decisions on energy network revenue determinations
  • assist the AER in challenging the network businesses on their spending proposals and how these have been informed and shaped by the businesses’ own customer engagement
  • liaise with the AER’s Customer Consultative Group (as constituted under the National Energy Retail Law) and other consumer representatives to ensure it can identify key issues of concern; provide an effective consumer focus in network revenue determination processes; and build capacity so these representatives can more effectively contribute to future network revenue determination processes
  • provide advice on consumer perspectives to other organisations (such as SCER, AEMC) as requested.

The AER will be calling for expressions of interest for suitable Panel Members in April 2013. Prospective candidates will be asked to consider the Panel Member’s Terms of Reference and to submit an application outlining their suitability, expertise and to address the selection criteria. Applications will be assessed by a Selection Panel and appointments made on merit. The Panel will be established by 1 July 2013.