Independent Consumer Report for Essential Energy

Description

The key objectives of the Independent Consumer Report were to assess the consumer engagement undertaken for the development of Essential Energy’s 2024-29 Regulatory Proposal (Regulatory Proposal); and the extent to which the Regulatory Proposal reflects consumer preferences and desired outcomes.

Scope of work

Donna Groves and Kelly Mico from Comacon and team worked with Essential Energy’s Independent Advisory Committee – the Stakeholder Collaborative Collective (SCC) for ten months in 2022. We conducted the engagement review, observed consumer forums, conducted in-depth interviews, facilitated meetings for the Stakeholder Collaboration Collective and on served the Pricing Stakeholder Collective. We collated this research and developed the Independent Consumer Report. We then collaborated on the report on behalf of the SCC with Essential Energy and their service provide Woolcott Research and Engagement. The report was published by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) as part of the Regulatory Proposal.

Approach

Donna Groves and Kelly Mico undertook the consumer engagement assessment on behalf of Essential Energy’s SCC. We worked with stakeholder representatives, facilitated group and individual workshops, assessing the engagement used best practise metrics as well as the IAP2 Spectrum.

Highlights

This project was complex as it involved working with different stakeholder representatives and cross-organisational teams including SCC, Essential Energy, and Woolcott Research & Engagement. Comacon used our expertise for stakeholder and community engagement to support the SCC and prepare the Independent Consumer Report.  

Our assessment work was used in the development of the Regulatory Proposal. The final edition of this Independent Report is now live for the public to download at

https://www.aer.gov.au/networks-pipelines/determinations-access-arrangements/essential-energy-determination-2024%E2%80%9329/proposal  

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(Scroll down to "Supporting information" then click "Essential Energy - Customer engagement2- Att 4-10-4-15" to download a Zip file. See attachment 4.15 for the Independent Report).

Contacts

Donna Groves, Managing Director and Principal Consultant
Kelly Mico, Principal Consultant- Public Affairs

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