The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued decisions regulating the revenues and prices on the Snowy Mountains and the South Australian electricity transmission networks.
In the first decision, the ACCC has set a revenue cap of under $11 million per annum for the transmission network operated by the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority.
"This decision is the second made by the ACCC as the economic regulator of electricity transmission networks in the National Electricity Market and reflects the ACCC's commitment to maintaining best practice regulation", ACCC Acting Chairman and Energy Commissioner, Mr Rod Shogren, said today.
In its decision, the ACCC has set a revenue cap that trends down slightly from $10.79 million to $10.66 million over the regulatory period ending 30 June 2004. The ACCC's decision is based on an opening asset base of $62.45 million and a post-tax nominal return on equity of 11.20 per cent.
"The return on equity for the Snowy transmission assets reflects the prevailing market conditions and it is lower than for other recent ACCC decisions", Mr Shogren said.
In the second decision, the ACCC approved a significant discount to the South Australian electricity transmission prices.
The $18.1 million discount in ElectraNet SA's transmission prices is funded from South Australia's purchases of cheaper electricity from Victoria.
"The rebates will result in reduced transmission charges of around 25% over the first six months of this year", Mr Shogren said.