The Economic Regulation Authority (ERA) has reported that Western Australia has the highest reported electricity disconnection rate in the country.
Chair of the ERA, Nicky Cusworth (pictured) said its annual data reports covered the distribution and sale of electricity and gas in Western Australia.
“The reports include data on financial hardship, disconnections and reconnections, market size and share, supply reliability, complaints resolution, call centre performance and streetlight repairs,” Ms Cusworth said.
“Electricity retailers are assisting growing numbers of customers struggling to pay their bills, continuing a trend evident over the past four years.”
She said that in 2018-19, 13.4 per cent of residential electricity customers were granted more time to pay their bills, and 6.7 per cent were paying off accumulated debt under instalment plans, both of which were the highest numbers seen in the past six years.
“The ERA started collecting new hardship data in 2016-17, and since then the percentage of electricity customers on a hardship program has risen from 2.2 per cent to 3.4 per cent,” Ms Cusworth said.
“In positive news, the hardship programs that retailers have put in place to help customers appear to be working, with 88 per cent of electricity customers successfully completing their program in 2018-19.”
She said residential electricity disconnections increased for the sixth successive year, to reach two per cent of customers in 2018-19. This was the highest disconnection rate among the comparable states of NSW (0.99 per cent), South Australia, (1.32 per cent) and Victoria (0.89 per cent).
“In the gas sector, the recent entry of new licensed gas retailers continues to increase competition, with Alinta Energy’s share of the residential gas market dropping from 96 per cent to 63.2 per cent in just six years,” Ms Cusworth said.
