On 11 September 2025, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) published a draft determination proposing a framework to enable access to real-time data for consumers. The AER made a submission in response to the draft determination on 23 October 2025.
Real-time data could bring benefits to many consumers and become an important feature of Australia’s energy system in the future. However, this data is personal information about customer behaviour and it is crucial that market participants manage and use this data safely.
Our submission encourages the AEMC to take a ‘safety by design’ approach to the final rules. This would involve setting the highest possible level of privacy and consent requirements for personal information as the default standard. We also make recommendations with respect to civil penalties for breaches of these requirements.