The independent Expert Panel tasked with reviewing Tasmania’s electricity sector today handed its Final Report to the Treasurer and Minister for Energy.

• Download the Final Report

"The Final Report is the culmination of 17 months of detailed, evidence-based investigation by the Panel, which has included extensive and highly involved consultation with both industry participants and the broader Tasmanian
community", the Panel Chairman, Mr John Pierce said.

The Final Report contains the Panel’s recommendations for the development of a new Tasmanian Energy Strategy.

"The Panel’s simple message is that effective retail competition for households and small businesses will not be delivered without structural reform of the wholesale energy market", Mr Pierce said.

"The recommended structural reform package will bring about genuine and enduring retail competition and, ultimately, deliver significant economic benefits to the State."

The four key components of the Panel’s proposed package involve:

• Introducing competition in the wholesale electricity markets in Tasmania by transferring Hydro Tasmania’s trading functions into three new Stateowned trading entities, which would compete in utilising electricity produced by Hydro Tasmania. Hydro Tasmania’s physical generation business would remain as it is today.
• Bringing national retailers to Tasmania through the sale of Aurora Energy’s retail electricity business in three parcels, and the declaration of full retail contestability.
• The sale of the Tamar Valley Power Station.
• Merging the distribution and transmission networks into a single, Stateowned network business.

The Final Report also makes recommendations on several priority issues that the Panel considers require immediate attention.

The proposed measures include: amending the regulatory framework that is used to set small business and household electricity prices; addressing the unsustainable commercial position of the Tamar Valley Power Station; and improving the oversight and reporting arrangements that apply to the State-owned energy businesses.

"Implementing the Panel’s recommendations will provide the best chance of delivering the kind of vibrant  competition that was envisaged when the Tasmanian Government embarked on the important energy market reform project in the 1990s", Mr Pierce said.

The Final Report has been tabled in the Tasmanian Parliament and is now available for download on this website.

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