Page 4074 - Week 11 - Thursday, 21 September 2017
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This is having the consequence of imposing licensing or operating certificate regimes on small-scale installations or utility services that do not require this level of regulation. The flow-on effect is that there are a number of administrative and regulatory hurdles that impede innovation and the adoption of new technologies in the utilities sector. In some cases, the level of regulation that is imposed is not commensurate with, or targeted to, the risk factors associated with the delivery of the utility service.
In order to take advantage of the developments in the utilities sector and to promote innovation and competition, we must ensure that our utilities regulation is tailored and responsive to the changing nature of the industry. This will ensure that we can maximise the potential benefits to ACT energy consumers. To address this issue, the bill proposes to insert a regulation-making power that will allow for classes of utility services to be exempted from the application of the act.
This power will be inserted into both the Utilities Act and the UTR act. The exemption power will enable both the Utilities Act and the UTR act to become more flexible in their application and to be more adaptable to the rapidly changing energy utilities sector. The new power will enable a class of utility services to be exempt from the application of each act, provided that a number of important pre-conditions are met.
The inclusion of an exemption regulation-making power is considered the best approach in the short term to ensure that the ACT’s utilities legislation is responsive, adaptable and fit for purpose. We must ensure that our laws not only accommodate current innovations but also are sufficiently flexible to adapt to future changes and technologies that have not yet been developed.
An exemption power that has the ability to remove utility services from the regulatory schemes under each act is not an insignificant power. To that end, the power is appropriately subject to a number of pre-conditions that must be met before an exemption regulation can be made. These conditions, as set out in clauses 4 and 7 of the bill, act as safeguards on the exercise of the power to ensure that exempting a class of utility services will not compromise the achievement of the objects of each act.
In practice, this means that the responsible minister must first consult with the relevant regulator about the making of the exemption regulation. For the Utilities Act this is the ICRC, and for the UTR act this is the technical regulator. It is important to embed this consultation requirement into the act so that the minister receives regulatory advice from the appropriate expert.
After consulting, the minister must be reasonably satisfied of one of two things. The first criterion is that the class of utility service is adequately regulated by another law applying in the ACT. Examples of other relevant laws that apply in the ACT that may provide the appropriate regulation of utility services include national energy laws or the ACT’s Electricity Safety Act. The second criterion is that the class of utility service does not warrant a regulatory response.
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