Published: March 22, 2019

Issue for Business: The BEC supports the Panel putting consumers at the heart of the electricity price review. The options paper outlines the importance for electricity prices to be fair and affordable for consumers, as well as efficient or competitive. We recognise that even with cost-reflective, efficient prices, outcomes can emerge that are undesirable for some consumer groups. However, a competitive electricity market is a desirable objective in itself, and a strategy of mostly using competitive tools to deliver on it an appropriate one. It is important to review the market multidimensionally including affordability as one of the dimensions. Understanding the conceptual gap between what the market can reasonably be expected to deliver, and the other outcomes the Panel wishes to achieve speaks to the identification of problems and the allocation of appropriate, matching solutions.