Guidelines

ICRC Disclosure Guidelines

In our regulatory decision-making and advisory work, we adopt open and transparent processes to allow all affected stakeholders the opportunity to participate in our processes, to test information and evidence given to us, and to help stakeholders and other interested people understand the reasons for our decisions and advice to the ACT Government.

When information is given to us on a confidential basis, we discuss with the person who supplied the information the reasons why the information is confidential. We try to find alternative ways of presenting the information that will not disclose information that is genuinely confidential, while still meeting our objective of an open and transparent process.

For more information on how to make a submission that contains confidential information and how we treat confidential submissions, please visit: ICRC submissions.

In certain circumstances, we can disclose confidential information where there are overall net benefits from doing so. Under section 46 of the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission Act 1997, we may publish guidelines that apply to the disclosure of confidential information given to us. We have decided to make new Disclosure Guidelines. These guidelines guide the commission on how to decide whether there would be net benefits from disclosing certain confidential information.

An electronic copy (PDF) of the guidelines is provided below.

ACT Retail Electricity (Transparency and Comparability) Code

This guideline helps NERL retailers comply with the ACT Retail Electricity (Transparency and Comparability) Code, which comes into effect on 1 October 2021.

The Code makes it easier for ACT households and small businesses to compare electricity offers and find an offer that helps them reduce their bills. Under the Code, retailers will have to calculate and advertise discounts off a benchmark reference price to make it faster and simpler for consumers to compare offers. Retailers will also have to tell their customers when they might have a better offer and help them choose the offer that’s right for them.

For more information, please visit the Code project page.

Material Breach Guideline (2021)

The commission regulates licenced utilities in the ACT. Each licence provides that there are two categories of licence breaches: breaches that are ‘material’ and any other breach that is not found to be ‘material’. A utility must tell us of any ‘material breaches’ and give us a written statement.

This guideline assists licenced utilities in determining what is a material breach and how to report material breaches to the commission.

Making a report to us does not remove a utility’s reporting obligations to the Technical Regulator and other organisations, and vice versa.