The update reviews federal and state regulators and projects. Also included is our status report on current regulatory projects dealing with energy market transformation. 

Energy was again on the front page over the last fortnight.  Yesterday’s meeting between retailers and the Prime Minister will be covered next time, but over the last two weeks, here were the key developments:

• After a rapid consultation process, the final NGR changes were put in place to implement a gas pipeline binding expert determination framework. This is a major development for the gas sector, and pipelines in particular. 
   
• The AER kicked off its next review of the rate of return guidelines.  This is always good regulatory sport, although perhaps less exciting with the apparent imminent demise of merits review.
   
• Paula Conboy’s speech to the ENA conference is worth a read – indicating that the AER is looking for closer and more collaborative engagement with industry. 
   
• The AER released its framework and approach papers for NSW, ACT, Tasmanian and NT networks. 
   
• The QCA issued an interesting report to the Queensland Government with advice on time-varying solar feed in tariffs.
   
• There were some periodic industry publications – including a new version of the NER and the ACCC’s quarterly Network publication (look out for the article by Stephen Littlechild on the history of switching and price controls in the UK energy market).