AER Regulatory

Overview

The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) regulates DNSPs under a building block revenue regulation model. Every five years, the AER conducts a regulatory determination that sets the maximum revenue a DNSP can earn. Between determinations, the DNSP must comply with extensive annual reporting requirements via Regulatory Information Notices (RINs).

Revenue Regulation Model

The AER’s building block model sets the allowed revenue as the sum of:

Allowed_Revenue = WACC × RAB + Depreciation + Opex_Allowance + Incentive_Adjustments + Tax

Where:

WACC: Weighted Average Cost of Capital (set by AER, ~5–7%)
RAB: Regulatory Asset Base (see RAB Roll-Forward)
Depreciation: straight-line depreciation of regulatory assets
Opex Allowance: approved operating expenditure
Incentive Adjustments: STPIS, EBSS, CESS (see below)
Tax: regulated return on tax asset base

Regulatory Determination Periods

Current determination periods:

DNSP	Regulatory Period	Revenue Determination Date
Ausgrid	2024–2029	June 2023
Endeavour Energy	2024–2029	June 2023
Essential Energy	2024–2029	June 2023
Energex	2025–2030	June 2024
Ergon Energy	2025–2030	June 2024
AusNet	2026–2031	In progress
SA Power Networks	2025–2030	June 2024

The Energy Copilot platform tracks the current determination period for each DNSP and highlights when the next reset submission is due.

Regulatory Information Notices (RINs)

The AER issues RINs to collect information needed for economic regulation. There are two main categories:

Annual Reporting RINs

Filed annually for each financial year, covering:

Actual expenditure (capex and opex)
Revenue and tariff data
Asset information
Customer and service data
Regulatory compliance attestations

Periodic RINs

Filed as part of the regulatory reset process (every 5 years), covering:

Revenue proposal documentation
Asset management plans
Demand forecasts
Expenditure justification

AER Regulatory Dashboard (`/dnsp/aer-regulatory`)

Current determination period status for each DNSP
RIN filing calendar with due dates and completion status
Revenue comparison: actual vs allowance by building block
RAB movements: additions, disposals, depreciation
WACC tracker: current AER-set WACC vs market benchmarks

-- Revenue allowance vs actual by year
SELECT
    financial_year,
    dnsp_name,
    revenue_allowance_aud,
    actual_revenue_aud,
    revenue_variance_aud,
    variance_pct,
    over_under_recovery
FROM energy_copilot.gold.dnsp_revenue_tracking
WHERE financial_year >= YEAR(CURRENT_DATE()) - 3
ORDER BY financial_year DESC, dnsp_name;

Incentive Schemes

The AER’s incentive schemes adjust DNSP revenue based on performance:

Scheme	Acronym	Measures	Direction
Service Target Performance Incentive	STPIS	SAIDI, SAIFI, MAIFI	Better = earn more
Efficiency Benefit Sharing Scheme	EBSS	Opex efficiency vs allowance	Save more = earn more
Capital Expenditure Sharing Scheme	CESS	Capex underspend vs allowance	Underspend = earn more

API Endpoints

# Current regulatory period details
GET /api/dnsp/regulatory/period?dnsp=ausgrid

# Revenue allowance vs actual
GET /api/dnsp/regulatory/revenue?dnsp=energex&years=3

# RIN filing calendar
GET /api/dnsp/regulatory/rin-calendar?dnsp=essential_energy

# Determination timeline
GET /api/dnsp/regulatory/determination-timeline?dnsp=ausnet