The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has released draft access arrangement decisions that will apply to gas distribution networks Evoenergy, Australian Gas Networks, and the Amadeus Gas Pipeline for the 2026–31 period.
Scheme distribution gas networks and transmission pipelines are required to submit access arrangement proposals to the AER every 5 years outlining the services they will provide, the tariffs for those services and other terms and conditions on which services will be provided to their customers.
Our draft decisions have considered the 2026–31 proposals submitted by the 3 gas networks, their individual circumstances, and the need to ensure access arrangements that provide for a safe, reliable, affordable and secure service in the long‑term interest of consumers.
Our final decision will reflect the latest available market information and therefore may be different to the forecast in this draft decision.
Our draft decisions on expected revenues for the 2026–31 period are ($nominal smoothed):
AGN (SA): $1,187.8 million, or $119.6 million (9.1%) less than proposed
Evoenergy (ACT): $423.2 million, or $35 million (7.6%) less than proposed
Amadeus Gas Pipeline: $147.4 million, or $1.2 million (0.8%) more than proposed.
Our draft decisions provide guidance and are an opportunity for the businesses to consider what further information and analysis may be required to support prudent and efficient investment as part of revised proposals.
Our draft decision makes reductions to Evoenergy’s proposed capital expenditure (capex) and accelerated depreciation. We recognise the potential stranded asset risk faced by Evoenergy and our decision to allow some accelerated depreciation (reduced to $47 million from Evoenergy's proposed $105 million) is designed to incentivise Evoenergy to undertake efficient investment during the net zero transition.
Our draft decision for Evoenergy seeks to balance the uncertainty of managing the transition to full electrification in the ACT by 2045, with ensuring price stability and affordability as demand declines.
Our draft decision makes reductions to AGN SA’s capex and operating expenditure (opex). We consider that aspects of AGN SA’s capex and opex proposals require further supporting information to demonstrate the benefits that would accrue to consumers if we were to approve their proposals in full.
Other elements of our draft decision include not accepting AGN’s proposed $30 million ($2025–26) accelerated depreciation, as we do not consider there to be sufficient evidence that AGN’s network currently faces significant stranding risk that needs to be addressed through accelerated depreciation.
Our draft decisions for Evoenergy and AGN both require the businesses to apply a hybrid tariff variation mechanism that blends elements of their existing weighted average price cap with elements of revenue cap regulation. This mechanism helps with more stable price outcomes for customers and aligns with the energy transition by reducing incentives for volume growth.
Our draft decision for the Amadeus Gas Pipeline makes reductions to its forecast capex and accepts its proposed opex. The small increase in our draft decision compared to APTNT’s proposal is due to a smaller negative carryover amount under the opex Efficiency Carryover Mechanism. Our decision has also applied the Capital Expenditure Sharing Scheme (CESS) for the 2026–31 period. We encourage stakeholder feedback on application of the CESS to inform our final decision.
Next steps
The network businesses have until 14 January 2026 to respond to our draft decision with a revised proposal.
We encourage the network businesses to continue to consult their stakeholders on key elements of our draft decision to ensure that consumer views are reflected in their revised proposals.
The AER’s final decisions, which will be made by 15 May 2026, will set tariffs that will form the basis for network charges for the 2026–31 period.
