WHAT CHANGES TO ENERGY PRICING WILL WE SEE?
This year we saw the national energy guarantee (NEG) get kicked to the kerb by the federal government. The NEG was potentially our first national energy policy: a framework to provide certainty for investment in new generation assets and price stability in energy markets, while also addressing climate change.
Being an election year I’m confident that we won’t see any progress towards a revived national energy policy. However, we could see increased regulation for energy retailers and from July 1, 2019 the introduction of a default energy offer price, which would come into effect when our existing discount expires.
With the binning of the NEG, state governments are taking it upon themselves to drive the deployment of renewables into their energy mix. 2019 is shaping up as the year we return to regulation, leading to the average consumer paying less for energy, along with state government programs and initiatives to further cap prices and deliver renewables.