The value of rebates paid by utility companies in the ACT to customers as a result of service issues grew by 95 per cent in the last financial year to just shy of $300,000.
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The increase was mainly driven by a higher number of rebates paid by Evoenergy to compensate customers for late electricity connections, an independent regular has found.
Evoenergy paid rebates on 1684 occasions in 2021-22 for electricity distribution issues - worth $226,270 - and on two occasions for gas distribution problems.
Icon Water paid rebates on 543 occasions for water supply and sewerage service issues, at a cost of $70,680.
The Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission this week released its annual performance assessment of utility companies in the ACT.
"Automatic payment of rebates has led to a significant increase in rebates paid to customers, from a total of $1200 paid by utilities in 2019-20, to $151,610 in 2020-21 and $297,034 paid for the 2021-22 reporting year," the commission said.
Since 2020, utilities are required to pay rebates automatically to customers when they have not met guaranteed service levels as set out in a consumer protection code.
Senior commissioner Joe Dimasi said: "Despite the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and extreme weather events, utilities generally met their licence conditions and the service levels guaranteed by the consumer protection code."
However, the report noted there were 52 unplanned sustained interruptions to electricity supply, up from 26 events in the year before.
Evoenergy is required to pay customers a rebate when unplanned blackouts last more than 12 hours. The company had to pay rebates to 885 customers in the last financial year.
The company also failed to meet customer connection time standards on 891 occasions during 2021-22, but had submitted to the independent regulator it did not need to pay rebates for 888 of those late connections.
"We considered Evoenergy's arguments and supporting evidence and agreed with Evoenergy not paying rebates when the customer had rescheduled the works, and for late connections caused by the super-cell storm," the regulator said.
"However, Evoenergy did not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate to the commission the extent that COVID-19 related issues impacted the delays. Nor did Evoenergy demonstrate circumstances outside of its control.
"Rather, given the experience Evoenergy gained from the 2020-21 regulatory year, we consider Evoenergy to have been better placed in 2021-22 to predict the impacts of COVID-19 and respond accordingly.
"In our view, Evoenergy did not sufficiently mitigate this harm."
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Evoenergy received 335 complaints about electricity distribution, an increase of 19 complaints from the year before. The company did not respond to two complaints within 20 business days.
The company received 140 complaints about gas distribution, a drop of 43 complaints from the year before.
Icon Water received 372 complaints about water supply and 107 complaints about sewerage services.
Five utility companies were licensed to operate in the ACT in 2021-21: Icon Water for water and sewerage service, Evoenergy to provide electricity and gas distribution, Transgrid for electricity transmission, and East Australian Pipeline Limited for gas transmission services.
The companies are required to report to the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission annually on their performance measured against requirements in the Utilities Act.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
