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In late 2022 and early 2023, we conducted extensive community engagement with customers across our network to inform the development of our future business plans (otherwise known as a regulatory reset).
The aim was to identify priorities and considerations around key areas of discussion including affordability, equity, reliability, resilience, the energy transition and customer service.
To delve deeper and better understand the needs and priorities of our rural and regional customers, a Regional and Rural Summit was held in June 2023.
At the summit, we proposed a range of different customer outcomes to objectively discover the needs of these communities. The valuable feedback we received is now informing our future business plans for 2026-2031.
What we heard
Participants recognised improving network reliability, capacity, and power quality were all interconnected and essential to addressing the service inequities faced by many regional and rural communities. In the absence of tackling these issues, realising the benefits of clean energy transition would be difficult for these communities.
Participants believed that improved network reliability and power quality were vital to sustain and encourage economic growth. This point was emphasised by commercial and industrial customers operating in energy-intensive sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing.
Participants believed a long-term vision (10-20 years) was required to bridge metro-rural performance divide. Five years was seen as too short a period to close the gap.
Resilience was front of mind for many participants. It was recognised that effort to improve resilience required a collective effort between customers, communities, distributors and other emergency agencies.
Access to three-phase power was identified as an issue that needed to be addressed to increase access to new clean energy technologies. It was understood that three phase upgrades would be expensive and that the degree and speed at which any upgrades occurred needed to be balanced with the cost of energy supply.
Participants discussed the need for the Victorian Government to play a role in addressing improvements for rural and regional communities. Participants suggested there was an opportunity for regulatory reforms and sought collaboration with the business to support them in implementing changes that positively impact rural and regional communities.
Next steps
The feedback from the Summit will inform the 2026-2031 Regulatory Reset Proposal as we move into the next stages - the Shape, Test and Challenge stage in 2024, through to the Approval and Implementation stages in 2025 and 2026.
Right now, we'd like your feedback on the Rural and Regional Summit report. Complete the survey below to provide specific feedback on the report, otherwise feel free to use the enquiry form to ask us a quick question.
In late 2022 and early 2023, we conducted extensive community engagement with customers across our network to inform the development of our future business plans (otherwise known as a regulatory reset).
The aim was to identify priorities and considerations around key areas of discussion including affordability, equity, reliability, resilience, the energy transition and customer service.
To delve deeper and better understand the needs and priorities of our rural and regional customers, a Regional and Rural Summit was held in June 2023.
At the summit, we proposed a range of different customer outcomes to objectively discover the needs of these communities. The valuable feedback we received is now informing our future business plans for 2026-2031.
What we heard
Participants recognised improving network reliability, capacity, and power quality were all interconnected and essential to addressing the service inequities faced by many regional and rural communities. In the absence of tackling these issues, realising the benefits of clean energy transition would be difficult for these communities.
Participants believed that improved network reliability and power quality were vital to sustain and encourage economic growth. This point was emphasised by commercial and industrial customers operating in energy-intensive sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing.
Participants believed a long-term vision (10-20 years) was required to bridge metro-rural performance divide. Five years was seen as too short a period to close the gap.
Resilience was front of mind for many participants. It was recognised that effort to improve resilience required a collective effort between customers, communities, distributors and other emergency agencies.
Access to three-phase power was identified as an issue that needed to be addressed to increase access to new clean energy technologies. It was understood that three phase upgrades would be expensive and that the degree and speed at which any upgrades occurred needed to be balanced with the cost of energy supply.
Participants discussed the need for the Victorian Government to play a role in addressing improvements for rural and regional communities. Participants suggested there was an opportunity for regulatory reforms and sought collaboration with the business to support them in implementing changes that positively impact rural and regional communities.
Next steps
The feedback from the Summit will inform the 2026-2031 Regulatory Reset Proposal as we move into the next stages - the Shape, Test and Challenge stage in 2024, through to the Approval and Implementation stages in 2025 and 2026.
Right now, we'd like your feedback on the Rural and Regional Summit report. Complete the survey below to provide specific feedback on the report, otherwise feel free to use the enquiry form to ask us a quick question.
It's important to us that everyone has the opportunity to share feedback and contribute ideas as part of our business plan development.
This survey will take approximately five minutes to complete and asks some specific feedback about the Rural and Regional Summit report and its content.
If you have a general enquiry or quick question, you can provide this via the question tool below.
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