This report provides information on the energy market to promote effective competition and achieve the best outcomes for Victorian energy consumers
Victorian Energy Market Report
Overview
The Victorian Energy Market Report aims to build consumer understanding of how the market operates.
Victorian Energy Market Report – 2022-23
Key messages and findings
Customers experiencing payment difficulty
Our analysis shows that more Victorian energy consumers accessed assistance from their retailer to help pay their bills.
Our key findings include:
- An average of 65,268 electricity customers and 54,139 gas customers accessed assistance in 2022-23. This represents an increase of five per cent for electricity and 13 per cent for gas from last year.
- More customers received assistance for longer than a year and with more than $1,000 in arrears compared to last year.
- Around four per cent of energy customers had arrears greater than $300, but were not accessing payment assistance.
Disconnections for non-payment
Retailers disconnected 11,651 electricity and 4,275 gas residential customers for non-payment in 2022-23. This was 17 per cent less for electricity and 16 per cent less for gas compared to last year.
While there were fewer disconnections, retailers issued 7,000 more disconnection warning notices to consumers that are behind on payments, leaving them at risk of disconnection.
The report tracks energy retailer activity and consumer trends for 2022-23, including articles covering:
Customers experiencing payment difficulty
- highlights challenges faced by consumers in paying their energy bills, indicated by a rise in consumers accessing bill payment assistance, and drop in customers exiting tailored assistance with no arrears.
Disconnections for non-payment
- provides an update on disconnections for non-payment in 2022-23 and highlights an increase in disconnection warning notices to consumers behind on payments.
Energy in Victoria (EiV)
- Broader compliance and enforcement activity – a summary of our compliance and enforcement actions in 2022-23
- Transmission company performance – provides an update on energy transmission company performance against the commission’s statement of expectations
- Energy distributor performance – an analysis of data and trends relating to energy distributor performance against relevant standards
- Market entry and exit – an update on licences granted, the regulatory sandboxing framework and electricity licence exemptions activity
- Reports and reviews – an overview of our most recent and upcoming publications
We have also released our latest interactive Victorian Energy Market Dashboard, which provides an overview of key trends in the energy market.
Victorian Energy Market Dashboard
With the Victorian Energy Market Report, we also publish the Victorian Energy Market Dashboard. The dashboard brings the data we previously published as Microsoft Excel tables into a more usable and interactive format.
The dashboard offers graphical representations that provide a quick overview of the essential trends in the energy market. It includes summaries of customer statistics, such as the number of customers and the types of contracts they are on. Additionally, it provides information on customers receiving assistance for bill payments, government concessions, and Utility Relief Grants. The dashboard also presents customer service performance metrics, including call waiting times, abandoned calls, and customer complaints. Furthermore, it covers disconnections for non-payment.
The Victorian Energy Market Dashboard enhances accessibility and facilitates a comprehensive understanding of key insights within the energy market.
Previous reports
Victorian energy market report and updates in 2022-23
Data previously published as Microsoft Excel tables with our annual Victorian Energy Market Report is now available in a more usable and interactive format in our Victorian energy market dashboard.
Victorian energy market report and updates in 2021-22
Victorian energy market report and updates in 2020-21
Victorian energy market report and updates in 2019-20
30 November 2020
Note: The table names in this excel reference the figure numbers used throughout the report and the rest are supplementary tables. This uses the most up to date information from retailers and may differ from previous reports
(xlsx, 285.98 KB)
Victorian energy market report and updates in 2018-19
Victorian energy market report and updates in 2017-18
26 February 2019
This report provides a full summary of the Victorian energy market in 2017-18.
(PDF, 7.16 MB)
29 November 2018
This snapshot report provides a short summary of the Victorian energy market in 2017-18. This report has since been superseded by the Victorian Energy Market Report 2017-18.
(pdf, 737.14 KB)
21 December 2017
This update provides information on standard contract prices of Victorian gas retailers for 2017 – 18. This includes updated prices published by retailers on 8 and 15 December 2017.
(pdf, 287.46 KB)
Victorian Energy Market Report 2016-17
Victorian Energy Market Report 2015-16
Victorian Energy Market Report Updates: 2016-2017
Energy retail performance reports
These reports pre-date the Victorian Energy Market Report.