2023 wrap up: how you've helped create Powercor's 2026-2031 business plan

2023 has been an important year for our regulatory reset project, engaging with our customers and stakeholders to assist in the development of our 2026-2031 business plan.

Listening to the views of our customers is critical in ensuring we deliver a business plan that meets the needs, expectations and preferences of our customers who rely on the electricity distributed by our network.

Below are some of the year’s highlights from our largest customer engagement program ever, as well as more opportunities to have your say before our draft business plan is published in August 2024.

Engagement figures from January 2021 to December 2023.

Shifting lifestyle trends boost Victorians’ demand for energy

In October, we joined forces with CitiPower, United Energy and Monash University’s Emerging Technologies Research Lab to unveil massive shifts in future household energy demands in a new report.

The increase in home-based care, a rise in the energy needs for household pets and the increased adoption of electric vehicles were among the 51 specific trends uncovered by the research into Victorians’ future energy needs.

The pivotal study offers an invaluable glimpse into the future – empowering us to sharpen our forecasts, develop future business plans, and ensure our distribution networks evolve in line with customers’ changing expectations.

Learn more and read the report

Engaging rural and regional communities

With rural and regional customers relying heavily on the Powercor network, we hosted a dedicated forum to explore ways to create opportunities and address challenges associated with electricity distribution across rural and regional areas. Attendees told us there needed to be a long-term vision to improve network reliability, capacity and power quality and that is essential all customers benefit from the transition to a lower carbon future. This recent article by Renate Vogt, General Manager, Regulation summarised the unique challenges and opportunities facing regional and rural communities, and you can read the full report online.

Meanwhile, First Peoples in Mooroopna and the surrounding region highlighted to us their key priorities of affordability and reliability during engagement with the Yorta Yorta community earlier this year.

The price of electricity, a need to better understand how to reduce power bills, and the potential role of solar and batteries in achieving this were also areas of discussion.

Have your say on new energy technologies

The renewable energy transition is changing how and when customers use electricity. The Energy Transition Summit in November brought together a wide variety of stakeholders including local councils, sustainability groups and representatives of vulnerable people amongst others to help understand and prioritise customers’ needs for the transition.

Our Customer Energy Futures: Service Level Options Paper, currently open for consultation, explores options to address the challenges in accommodating new technologies, and support customer-led change and agency.

If you haven’t already, you can share your views on how you’d prefer to use customer energy resources that can generate or store power until Friday 5 January 2024.

Learn more and have your say

Looking ahead

The first few months of 2024 will see us testing and refining our draft business plans with customers, sharing what we’ve learnt through all our engagement so far and discussing price/service trade-offs with our customers. We’ll submit our draft business plan in August 2024.

Register to stay up to date and for your opportunity to contribute in the future.