The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission(ACCC)has told the federal government in a report released today ((wed)) the sector needs reform to bring down prices.
The ACCC report recommends dozens of new policies designed to encourage investment and prevent market manipulation, especially by companies that both operate power plants and sell power to consumers.
Among the most substantial is a new cap to prevent companies controlling more than 20 per cent of power generation in any market, including by buying smaller companies to increase their share.
One of the country’s leading providers, AGL, already controls 42 per cent of the South Australian market and 31 per cent of NSW.
The ACCC has also recommended the government guarantees the construction of new dispatchable coal or gas power sources.
Dispatchable power sources are sources of power that can be used on demand and dispatched at the request of power grid operators.
They are, in theory, helpful as a secondary source of power if the primary source becomes unavailable.
Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg has told Sky News the government will analyse all of the A-triple-C's 56 reccomendations.
Labor's Energy spokesman Mark Butler is calling on Coalition M-Ps to resist using the A-triple-C's recommendations to strengthen pro-coal agendas.
He says the rising energy prices are a result of the Coalition dismantling Labor's energy policies after it won the 2013 federal election.
"This is an energy crisis very much of Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbot's making. Today is an opportunity for Malcolm Turnbull to stamp his authority on his party room and say that the A-triple-C recommendations will be treated on their merit -- not used and abused by Coalition M-Ps who've got this coal agenda."
