Gentrack’s Energy Regulation Monitor – Australia

July – 2023

Better Bills Guideline 

What is it?  

The ‘Better Bills Guideline’ is part of the Australian Energy Regulator’s (AER) Consumer Vulnerability Strategy, designed to better protect vulnerable energy customers as they participate in the market. These new guidelines set out billing requirements that aim to help households compare cheaper offers and better understand how their power usage is calculated on their bills. 

Why is this being implemented? 

The regulation is intended to simplify the process of comparing plans and encourage switching to ensure customers get the best deals.  

How do I comply?

The guideline prioritises information that must be shared on customers’ bills through a tiered approach.  

• Tier 1 information: Energy providers must clearly state the following on the first page of the bill or the most prominent page online/ in an app: 
  • The customer’s name and address 
  • Bill amount 
  • Retailer’s contact details 
  • A ‘better offer’ message (more detail on this below)  

• Tier 2 information: The following data must immediately follow Tier 1 information on the bill: 

• A standardised plan summary, which includes: 
  • An overview of how the bill amount was calculated 
  • A comparison of usage from the previous bill  
  • An explanation of how to seek help with payments if needed  

How can Gentrack help? 

Gentrack will provide energy retailers with all the data required to comply. We can also help co-design and render the bill within the guidelines.  

A key part of the Better Bills Guideline is the “Better Offer Messaging” 

What is it?  

As part of the move to make energy bills simpler, the AER has mandated that energy retailers must notify customers on their bills if there’s a better offer and provide information on how to switch.  

Why is this being implemented? 

The plan is to help consumers and small business customers make better informed purchase decisions for their energy consumption. 

How do I comply?  

Retailers will need  to update their bill template designs in accordance with the better bills guidelines, where  Tier 1 information (for example name, account number, payment methods, best offer message) must appear on the first page of a paginated bill and at the beginning of an unpaginated bill and Tier 2 information (for example plan summary) must be included in a bill, but not on the first page of a paginated bill or at the beginning of an unpaginated bill, but before additional information. 

How can Gentrack help? 

Gentrack offers retailers the ability to calculate, view, and showcase the most attractive offers on a customer’s bill or notification of tariff changes. Additionally, we empower end-users by presenting all compared plans to aid them in addressing any customer inquiries. We can also provide assistance in co-designing and formatting the bill according to the relevant guidelines.

Consumer Data Right 

What is it? 

The Consumer Data Right (CDR) provides individuals and businesses with the right to access specific data relating to them (held by energy retailers) and authorise accredited third parties to access this energy data. After being mandated in Australian banking, the energy sector is next in line to be subject to the CDR. 

This change will enable consumers to easily share their data to get a better deal on a range of energy products and services. 

Why is it being implemented?  

The objective of the CDR is to promote greater competition and give customers the power to better understand their energy usage; to compare products, deals and easily switch between retailers. The CDR will accelerate innovation and encourage retailers to refine their product offerings, pricing models and delivery of services to remain competitive. 

How do I comply? 

The CDR for Energy will provide a voluntary framework for safe and secure data sharing. Consumers will need to consent and authorise their data to be shared by their energy retailer and only accredited parties will be able to receive data. Energy retailers are expected to be compliant with the CDR across: 

• Data sharing capabilities, both technology and business processes 
• Data lifecycle management  
• Information security and privacy  
• Uplift to customer engagement and management processes 

• The continuous change cycle of the CDR Rules, Standards and Guidelines 

How can Gentrack help? 

Gentrack has supported retailers and  provided the requested data in a market compliant format to recipients. Beyond compliance, this regulation opens a vast opportunity for retailers. Gentrack is supporting customers to derive value from their data, helping them to innovate and provide tailored solutions to clients and this change has been implemented in our Tier 1 customers in Australia.  

Technical Industry System Updates  

As part of Consumer Data Review, key changes to Market Settlement and Transfer Solutions (MSATS) are set to come into play.

MSATS CDR Changes 

What is it? 

The Treasury has requested The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) introduces a new data field in MSATS to indicate when a National Metering Identifier (a unique 10 or 11 digit number used to identify every electricity network connection point in Australia, known as NMI) has changed account holder.  

Why is it being implemented? 

The introduction of this field into MSATS will ensure that sharing of a consumer’s energy data, following authentication by the consumer’s current retailer, is in accordance with the Consumer Data Rights Rule. 
 
How do I comply? 

Retailers must notify the market of the date a consumer starts or ends as the account holder for a premise.  
 
How can Gentrack help? 

Gentrack can deliver this critical technical update to allow users to inform the market when an account holder for a premise change and to allow the system to automatically raise these requests to the market when a set of conditions are met. 

B2B procedures 3.8 changes  

What is it?  

There are two main changes; 

Shared Fuse: 

A new market transaction is being created to communicate if a site has a shared fuse arrangement to support Metering Coordinator (MC) Planned Interruption. This involves new obligations for Retailers and MCs to provide information to the Distributed Network Service Provider (DNSP) regarding the shared fuse arrangements at a site. 

Every meter exchange attempt, whether successful or not, will need to generate this information flow.  

The single Service Order (SO) Notified Party (NP) Proposal: 

The current coincident SO logic in the Service Order Procedure is designed to ensure that the re-energisation takes precedence over the de-energisation request when there are competing service order requests. In most circumstances this delivers the desired outcome (the new customer has supply to the premises). However, this becomes less clear in circumstances where multiple service providers could have been requested to perform the de-energisation and re-energisation. 

To overcome this, the use of Notified Party will be mandatory for de- and re-energisation SOs.   

Why is this being implemented? 

Shared Fuse: 

The goal is to reduce manual work in informing DNSP of Shared Fuse Status of a NMI and increase the accuracy of Data in MSATS. 

The single Service Order (SO) Notified Party (NP) Proposal: 

For the Retailer 

• This is designed to prevent inaccurate de-energisation 

For the Distributor / category C Metering Data Provider 

• This provides a consistent notification to the Distributor or the category C Metering Data Provider that a request has been submitted with respect to the energisation status of the site in all instances, not just move-in/move-out 
• The Distributor / category C Metering Data Provider could then use the notification to be aware of the outages at the NMI 

The receipt of a de-energisation SO NP by the MPB could mitigate a wasted truck visit, if their smart meter stops communicating. Conversely, a Distributor could mitigate a wasted truck visit, if a customer calls them to advise that they are off supply, following a remote disconnection. 

How do I comply? 

Shared Fuse: 

Meter Coordinators, Meter Providers, Retailer to notify DNSP if NMIs have a shared fuse arrangement and when the Distributor is notified, to update the market with amended details.

The single Service Order (SO) Notified Party (NP) Proposal: 

When a retailer is sending a re-energisation or de-energisation service order to a Distributor or a category C Metering Data Provider , they must notify the opposite party. Recipients of the Notified Party transaction treat that notification as an input to determine if the coincident SO logic should be applied. 

How can Gentrack help? 

Gentrack can deliver this critical technical update to allow the system to automatically input the relevant notified party when a de-en or re-en service is raised. For Distributors, Gentrack will improve the management of coincidence service orders by automatically cancelling De-en service orders when a set of configurable conditions are met or negatively acknowledging inbound De-en service orders when a set of configurable conditions are met.

aseXML R43 Schema Changes

What is it? 

aseXML is an energy market schema developed by Australian energy industries to facilitate the exchange of information between energy industry participants using XML. The “schema” details all the files that are transferred on this system. The schema is updated every 8 weeks as part of a managed released process. We are currently on version R42. aseXML R43 Schema Changes are the latest set of updates that are being implemented.   

R43 Schema change proposal is designed to accommodate changes to the B2M and B2B system related to following requirements, MSATS CDR, MSATS Standing Data Review, Stand Alone Power Systems and B2B 3.8. 

Why is it being implemented? 

The update will enable standard ‘format’ and ‘transportation’ of data to be exchanged based on the latest market changes. 

How do I comply? 

Retailers need to update their schema,  processes and implement system changes to enable them to meet the new requirements.  

How can Gentrack help? 

Gentrack will update its internal system with the latest schema changes. Gentrack will also allow new MSDR enumerations to be imported automatically through a set of new tables within the C1 report. 

For more information, or support with managing these Regulatory changes, get in touch with us here.