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Energy Legislation Amendment
(Customer Metering Protections and
Other Matters) Bill 2014
Introduction Print
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
General
The Energy Legislation Amendment (Customer Metering Protections and
Other Matters) Bill 2014 amends the Electricity Industry Act 2000 to
further provide for the powers to make Orders about advanced metering
infrastructure, and to simplify licensed electricity distributors' and retailers'
reporting obligations in regards to feed-in tariff schemes.
The Bill amends the Electricity Safety Act 1998 to abolish the electricity
safety Equipment Advisory Committee.
The Bill amends the Gas Industry Act 2001 to repeal definitions, and
exceptions to the definitions, which relate to gas distribution and
transmission systems that are now regulated under the National Gas
(Victoria) Act 2008, which applies the National Gas Law in Victoria.
Clause Notes
PART 1--PRELIMINARY
Clause 1 states the main purposes of the Bill, which are to amend the
Electricity Industry Act 2000, Gas Industry Act 2001 and
Electricity Safety Act 1998--
· to further provide for the powers to make Orders about
advanced metering infrastructure;
· to simplify the reporting obligations under the feed-in
tariff schemes;
571474 1 BILL LC INTRODUCTION 1/4/2014
· to abolish the electricity safety Equipment Advisory
Committee;
· to repeal provisions that are redundant because of the
operation of the National Gas (Victoria) Act 2008.
Clause 2 is the commencement provision which provides for the Bill to
come into operation on a day or days to be proclaimed, or on
1 April 2015 if not proclaimed before that date.
PART 2--AMENDMENT OF ELECTRICITY INDUSTRY
ACT 2000
Division 1--Advanced metering infrastructure
Clause 3 amends section 40A(3) of the Electricity Industry Act 2000 to
update the reference to the current Electricity Distribution Code
made by the Essential Services Commission. It also inserts a
new section 40A(3) to provide that the Commission may not
withhold its approval of a deemed distribution contract that is
consistent with an Order in Council made under section 46D of
that Act. An Order under section 46D(4)(a) of that Act (which is
to be inserted by clause 4) may allow an electricity distributor to
charge a customer directly for the manual reading of meters.
The terms and conditions of a deemed distribution contract must
be consistent with any requirement specified by an Order made
under section 46D(4)(a).
Clause 4 amends section 46D of the Electricity Industry Act 2000.
Subclause (1) inserts new sections 46D(1)(e) and (f) to empower
the making of Orders in Council for or with respect to--
· payments for failing to install advanced metering
infrastructure (AMI);
· payments for failing to install AMI that does not meet
specified functionality or specified standards of
performance or service for AMI;
· the manual reading of meters (including meters that are
part of AMI).
The intention of subclause (1) is to require a rebate to be paid to
customers when AMI is not installed or installed but not working
in certain situations, and to allow charges for having to manually
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read meters that are not part of AMI or that are part of AMI that
do not work in certain situations. An example of a situation
where a charge to manually read meters may be imposed is where
a customer has refused the installation of AMI.
Subclause (2) amends section 46D(2) to provide that the
particular provisions of section 46D(2) relate to the existing
general provisions of section 46D(1)(a) to (d). The existing
general provisions in sections 46D(1)(a) to (d) relate to--
· the regulation of AMI and associated services and
systems;
· the regulation of the installation, operation and
maintenance of AMI;
· the regulation of access to, or use of, AMI; and
· the regulation of access to and use of, or ownership of,
data or information associated with AMI.
Subclause (2) also inserts a new section 46D(2)(zg) to provide
that an Order in Council may require an electricity distributor to
provide information to the Minister or to the Essential Services
Commission about the following--
· installation (or non-installation) of AMI;
· installation of AMI that does not meet specified
functionality or specified standards of performance or
service for AMI; and
· payments in relation to a failure to install AMI or AMI
that does not meet specified functionality or standards
of performance or service.
Subclause (3) inserts new section 46D(3) to provide detail
regarding new section 46D(1)(e), which relates to payments in
relation to failure to install AMI or AMI that does not meet
specified functionality or standards of performance or service.
The new section 46D(3) provides that an Order in Council may--
· specify the date or the circumstances that a distributor
would be required to make a payment to a customer;
· set the payment amount or provide for the setting and
regulation of the payment amount; and
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· require a relevant entity such as a retailer to provide
information to another entity such as a distributor to
enable the payment. Specified information may include
the names and addresses of the customers that may be
entitled to a payment.
Subclause (3) also inserts new section 46D(4) to provide detail
regarding new section 46D(1)(f), which relates to fees for the
reading of meters. The new section 46D(4) provides that an
Order in Council may--
· provide for the setting and regulation of the fees and
charges that a distributor can charge for the costs of
manually reading meters (including meters that are part
of AMI);
· empower the recovery of these fees and charges from a
customer by a retailer or an exempt retailer;
· require notices to be issued to customers about fees for
manually reading meters; and
· require a relevant entity (such as a retailer) to provide
specified information to another entity (such as
a distributor) to enable the collection of fees.
Specified information may include the names and
addresses of the customers that may be charged the fees.
Subclause (3) also inserts new section 46D(5) to provide detail
regarding new section 46D(1)(e) and (f), which relate to
payments and fees for the reading of meters. The new section
46D(5) provides that an Order in Council may prohibit a
distributor from recovering from--
· customers who have AMI the costs associated with
manually reading meters; and
· any customer the costs associated with a payment for
failure to install AMI or AMI that does not meet
specified functionality or standards or performance or
service.
Clause 5 amends section 46E of the Electricity Industry Act 2000 to
provide that an Order made under new section 46D(3) (inserted
by clause 4), which relates to payments made by electricity
distributors to customers for failing to install AMI, may refer to
dates before the date that the Order takes effect. For example,
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an Order in Council may require electricity distributors to pay
a rebate to customers at residences as at 31 December 2013 for
failing to attempt to install AMI by 30 June 2014 (to compensate
for smart meter costs paid through the customer's metering
services charge and benefits not realised in the past), despite the
Order being made after 30 June 2014.
Division 2--Feed-in tariff reporting obligations
Clause 6 amends section 40FJ of the Electricity Industry Act 2000 to
reduce licensed electricity distributors' reporting requirements
regarding the Premium Feed-in Tariff (PFiT) and Transitional
Feed-in Tariff (TFiT) schemes. The obligation to report on the
number of facilities, generating capacity and amount of
electricity exported under the PFiT scheme is reduced from every
six months to annually. The obligation to report on the number
of facilities, the total generating capacity of those facilities and
the amount of electricity exported under the TFiT scheme is
reduced from every month to annually.
Clause 7 amends section 40NC of the Electricity Industry Act 2000
to reduce licensed electricity retailers' (that have more than
5000 customers) reporting requirements regarding the general
feed-in tariff scheme. The obligation to report on the number of
facilities and the amount of electricity exported under the scheme
is reduced from every month to every 3 months, and the
obligation to report on the total generating capacity of facilities
under the scheme (which is contained in existing section
40NC(1)(b)) is repealed by implication.
PART 3--AMENDMENT OF ELECTRICITY SAFETY
ACT 1998
Clause 8 amends section 3 of the Electricity Safety Act 1998 to repeal
paragraph (a) of the definition of Committee which refers to the
Equipment Advisory Committee.
Clause 9 repeals sections 50, 51, 52 and 53 of the Electricity Safety Act
1998. The effect of this provision is to abolish the Equipment
Advisory Committee. Section 50 of that Act establishes the
Equipment Advisory Committee including its membership and
the areas of expertise of its members. Section 51 outlines the
functions of the Committee, section 52 sets out the terms and
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conditions of appointment of members to the Committee and
section 53 sets out the procedures of the Committee.
Clause 10 amends section 116 of the Electricity Safety Act 1998 to replace
the reference to a supply network with a reference to a complex
electrical installation, and to provide that where sections 100
to 104 are applied, any reference to a supply network should be
read as if it were a reference to a complex electrical installation.
The intended effect of these amendments is to ensure that a
voluntary electrical safety management scheme must relate to the
complex electrical installation for which it is submitted, and not a
supply network operated by another entity.
PART 4--AMENDMENT OF GAS INDUSTRY ACT 2001
Clause 11 amends section 3 of the Gas Industry Act 2001 to repeal the
definitions of gas distribution system, gas transmission system,
primary distribution system and primary transmission system.
These terms are no longer used in the Gas Industry Act 2001
other than in sections 11 and 12, which are repealed by clause 12
of this Bill. This amendment is consequential to changes made
under the Energy Legislation Amendment (Australian Energy
Market Operator) Act 2009. That Act provided for the transfer
of the powers, functions, rights, responsibilities, assets and
liabilities of the Victorian Energy Networks Corporation
(VENCorp) to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
Clause 12 repeals sections 11 and 12 of the Gas Industry Act 2001, which
are redundant. These sections provide for exceptions to the terms
repealed by clause 11 which are no longer used in the Gas
Industry Act 2001. This amendment is consequential to the
changes made under the Energy Legislation Amendment
(Australian Energy Market Operator) Act 2009.
PART 5--REPEAL OF AMENDING ACT
Clause 13 provides for the automatic repeal of this amending Act on 1 April
2016. The repeal of this Act does not affect in any way the
continuing operation of the amendments made by this Act
(see section 15(1) of the Interpretation of Legislation Act
1984).
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