*Please note this timeline is subject to change.

On 20 October 2020 the AER released its Position Paper on the Default Market Offer (DMO) price for 2021-22 and is seeking stakeholders' views on a number of aspects of the methodology for determining the DMO price and other issues relevant to our determination. These include:

• using separate residential and small business load profiles in our wholesale electricity cost forecasting
• applying Ancillary Service Charges at a jurisdictional level, rather than smearing the costs of these charges across all zones
• annual usage assumptions from which DMO prices are calculated, including the timing and pattern of the usage
• the extent of the impacts of COVID-19 for retailers that should be accounted for in the DMO 3 price, and how these should be taken into account

We have instructed ACIL Allen Consulting to support us in updating the design of our forecasting approach for wholesale and environmental costs. A report, Default Market Offer 2021-22: Wholesale energy and environmental costs methodology paper for DMO 3, by ACIL Allen Consulting is published alongside the Position Paper.

We invited written submissions on the Position Paper. Submissions closed Thursday 19 November 2020.

As part of the AER's consultation process for its DMO 2021-22 price determination it held an online public forum to discuss key matters for consideration in the Position Paper.

The forum was held on Thursday, 29 October 2020. Around 55 stakeholders attended.

The public forum provided an opportunity for stakeholders to hear from AER staff and our consultant on aspects of the proposed DMO methodology. There were presentations from the AER, our consultants ACIL Allen, Red Energy and Energy Consumers Australia.