Reviewing the Gas Distribution System Code of Practice

The purpose of this review is to remake the Gas Distribution System Code of Practice to:

• allow effective compliance monitoring and enforcement
• align the code with the national regulatory framework and remove duplication and inconsistencies, and
• update the code to account for regulatory developments and the Victorian Government’s Gas Substitution Roadmap.

The Gas Distribution System Code of Practice

The Gas Distribution System Code of Practice sets out consumer protections and obligations gas distributors must follow in operating distribution systems in Victoria. It regulates:

• the operation of the distribution system
• connections and augmentation
• curtailment, disconnection and reconnection
• metering requirements
• life support equipment
• deemed distribution contract requirements
• customer complaint handling.

The Essential Services Commission (Compliance and Enforcement Powers) Amendment Act 2021 has reformed the enforcement framework that the commission operates under. As a result, our existing energy codes have transitioned to ‘codes of practice’. This means they are now subordinate legislative instruments and will only apply as a condition of licences or exemptions.

On 15 November 2023, we released our draft decision on the Gas Distribution System Code of Practice review. Our draft decision and the draft Gas Distribution Code of Practice can be found in the Resources tab (at the top of this page).

Stakeholders are invited to provide feedback on the draft Gas Distribution Code of Practice via a survey through Engage Victoria or by making general comments over email, mail or phone. Our consultation process closes on Thursday 21 December 2023.

If you have any questions about the development of the draft Gas Distribution Code of Practice, you can contact us through email, mail or phone.

• Email: energyreform@esc.vic.gov.au
• Mail: Essential Services Commission, Level 8, 570 Burke Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000
• Phone: +61 3 9032 6290

We received stakeholder submissions by 4 May 2023. 

We held an online information session on Thursday 20 April 2023.

We released an Issues Paper on 21 March 2023 to seek stakeholder feedback on key issues in this review. 

Stakeholders were able to provide their feedback in the form of written submissions or through responding to survey questions via Engage Victoria.

Consultation ran from 21 March to 4 May 2023. 

20 stakeholders responded to our issues paper. We received 15 written submissions and 5 responses to the survey on Engage Victoria. Of these, 1 stakeholder requested their feedback to be confidential.

We have published all non-confidential submissions and survey responses in the resources tab of this page. If you made a confidential submission but would like to make your submission public, please email energyreform@esc.vic.gov.au.

Feedback on the consultation paper closed on 4 May 2023.

Submissions to the Issues Paper