Electricity prices: Regulator asks for power to grill energy price gougers
ENERGY regulators could soon be able to haul in and grill electricity executives face-to-face in a bid to probe artificially inflated power bills.
NSW
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ENERGY regulators could soon have sweeping new powers to haul in and grill electricity executives face-to-face in a bid to speed up investigations into artificially inflated power bills.
The Australian Energy Regulator requested the new powers in a letter to federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg after the Turnbull Government set the watchdog after companies which it suspects could be manipulating wholesale prices and driving up power bills.
The powers would make it easier for the regulator to slap major firms such as AGL and Origin with fines of up to $1 million if any are found to be ripping off customers.
The July letter obtained by The Daily Telegraph through freedom of information laws was written by AER chairwoman Paula Conboy and reveals the regulator investigated 14 “high price events” in Queensland in the first two months alone.
A spokesman for Mr Frydenberg told The Daily Telegraph that “providing the AER with the ability to gather oral evidence is being considered by the government”.
Mr Frydenberg has also written to the Energy Security Board requesting detailed modelling of the government’s National Energy Guarantee in a bid to convince eastern states, including several Labor governments, to back the plan.
The AER currently has to provide written questions in a process that can take weeks to audit a single allegation, and cannot demand executives and employees front up and answer specific questions.
The new powers would mean it can compel anyone that has information about dodgy activity by energy generators to appear for a face-to-face hearing.
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The Turnbull government has moved to aggressively investigate allegations of price gouging by electricity generators such as AGL and Origin Energy, with independent analysis showing major companies were pushing spot power prices up by as much as 50 per cent through anti-competitive conduct.
“An ability for the AER to gather oral evidence (through a provision equivalent to section 155(1)(c) of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010) may provide us with the ability to bring these issues to the fore more quickly,” Ms Conboy wrote.
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Mr Frydenberg last month asked the AER to investigate allegations of improper conduct in NSW coal power plants.
Ms Conboy’s letter also read: “We have looked into the high price events on the 14 occasions in January and February this year where spot prices in Queensland exceeded $5000/MWh and did not find that the Queensland generators breached the bidding and rebidding rules”.
Federal Labor yesterday continued to attack the government’s National Energy Guarantee policy, which would force electricity retailers to guarantee levels of reliability and emissions reductions, despite remaining open to the plan.
“Get back to me with that question once the government produces its modelling,” Opposition leader Bill Shorten said. Mr Shorten’s support could help sway Labor states on the plan.