Submission: Consultation on Energy Consumer Policies

This submission addresses a select few of the issues discussed in the NSW Government Consultation on Energy Consumer Policies paper — those with most relevance to renting households. We provide recommendations in relation to:

• Meters and meter boards
• Hot water embedded networks
• Distributed energy resources
• Community batteries and emerging technologies
• Information about energy technologies and the digitalisation of communication
• The Life Support Rebate
• Embedded network data

More broadly, we discuss our concerns with the overreliance on market forces to manage the energy system. Instead, effort should be made to implement strong regulation that ensures all people, regardless of tenure or income, can access a fair energy deal without needing to undertake onerous research and develop an understanding of the nuances of the energy system.