The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has published its second combined annual Electricity and gas distribution networks performance report.
The report analyses the key outcomes and trends in the operational and financial performance of 25 network service providers regulated by the AER. It is a point in time report, covering the regulatory period up to June 2024.
The report found that in 2024, after adjusting for inflation, electricity consumers on average paid the lowest cost for electricity network services since the beginning of our dataset. One of the drivers of this was the low interest rates and higher inflation during the 2015 to 2021 period. However, higher inflation and interest rates in the period following 2022 could increase electricity network costs in 2025 and the coming years.
The report also found that the distribution network cost for gas consumers in 2024, was one of the lowest in our dataset. This was due to lower gas demand by residential and industrial customers, which led to an overall decrease in the total gas delivered across all gas distribution networks.
The decrease in gas demand for residential customers was in part due to milder temperatures reducing the demand for heating. Other reasons for the decrease included the electrification of heating and cooking appliances and consumer preference for lower gas use with cost-of-living pressures.
Going forward, there is uncertainty in relation to the pace of decline in gas demand from the electrification of household appliances and other policy developments in the energy transition.
In 2024, we also saw an increase in capital expenditure (capex) for electricity distribution networks, who in aggregate overspent their collective capex allowance. For electricity transmission networks, the capex was slightly below the prior year, with the majority of their capex investment relating to Integrated System Plan projects, including EnergyConnect and Humelink.
Because any new network infrastructure will be paid by consumers, it is critical in this environment that networks are effectively utilising their current infrastructure for distribution services, looking for non-network solutions and avoiding any unnecessary future infrastructure investment.
Previously, we have also published a separate supplementary report for the three gas transmission networks we report on. This year, we have published the operational and performance datasets for these three gas transmission networks alongside the main report, as well as including further information in an appendix.
To complement this report, we have also released our Facilitating CER in Australia’s two-way energy system – Export services network performance report 2025, which provides information on how electricity distribution networks are facilitating and optimising consumer energy resources technology into their distribution networks with a focus on electric vehicles, vehicle-to-grid and community-scale batteries.
Next year, we will be integrating our export service network performance reporting into the 2026 Electricity and gas network report, which we plan to publish in June 2026.
Finalised objectives and priorities for our network performance reporting
Following consultation with stakeholders, we have finalised our objectives and priorities for our network performance reports. This involves two new priorities to recognise the emissions reduction targets in the NEO and NGO and our export services network performance reporting requirements.
In addition, we have made minor changes to
- the inform consideration of the effectiveness of the regulatory regime objective to reflect the need to achieve the NEO and
- the emerging trends and issues priority to expressly reference the energy transition to net zero.
In addition, we are progressing various actions to improve our reporting for 2026, including integrating export service reporting into our electricity and gas network performance reporting and targeting an earlier publication date of the report.