SIMON Corbell has welcomed an announcement by Origin Energy that it is entering the ACT electricity market.

“Greater competition will lead to more choice for consumers and may also lead to downward pressure on prices over the long term,” Simon said.

The ACT has implemented a number of major reforms to its energy markets over the past decade. Recently this has included the implementation of the National Energy Customer Framework (NECF).

“The ACT was one of the first jurisdictions in Australia to implement the NECF in July 2012 with the objectives of reducing costs for industry and attracting more retailers to our electricity and gas markets,” Mr Corbell said.

“There are some exciting new products and services that will emerge for electricity users in the coming years such as smart metering, solar/battery storage and new tariff structures that can make the market work more efficiently and reduce costs to the community.

The ACT already has one of the highest rates of customer satisfaction and the lowest level of complaints in Australia. It also has superior outcomes in relation to price and reliability with electricity unit prices in the ACT being the lowest by a significant margin.

“At the moment a typical Canberra household will pay almost a $1000 less for electricity each year than a similar household across the border in New South Wales,” Mr Corbell said.

“Having another significant player in the Canberra electricity market should only help drive prices down even further over the long term.”

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