4 Months not prompt enough to fix customers’ meters
For the failure to promptly fix meters, the AER has issued eight infringement notices which led three AGL retailers to pay a total of 160,000 in penalties. Each infringement notice cost the AGL entities $20,000. The infringement notices were issued as the AER found that there were sufficient grounds to believe that there was a breach of clause 11.87.7(h) of the National Electricity Rules (NER). The provision requires that a ‘financially responsible Market Participant’ receiving a notice of a metering installation malfunction under clause 11.87.7(g)(3) must ‘promptly appoint a Metering Coordinator’. Note, Embedded Network Retailers are currently not considered ‘financially responsible Market Participants’. However, if the planned changes by the AEMC come into effect it is likely that the same rules apply to Embedded Network Retailers. The infringement notices offer…