Submission to the Essential Services Commission on the Distribution Businesses' Customer Service Standards

The Property Council commends the Essential Services Commission (ESC) on its continued and extensive work on improving the timeliness of electricity connections to new residential developments. The decision paper released by the ESC in October 2020 took important steps towards improvement and was achieved through extensive consultation with industry, to the great benefit for developers and distribution businesses alike.

 As acknowledged by the ESC, improving the timeliness of connecting new developments and new housing to the electricity grid is critically important to Victorian homebuyers.  It is also vital to Victoria's overall economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, especially given a recent upswing in market activity in the greenfields space and the continued need to ensure the timely supply of new housing and support housing affordability.

This submission considers the customer service standards proposed three distribution business – AusNet, PowerCor and Jemena. We consider the proposals of each, in turn.