Jemena submits revised Electricity Pricing and Services Plan

Energy infrastructure company, Jemena, has submitted its revised 2026-31 Proposal for its electricity network to the Australian Energy Regulator (AER).

The revised Proposal responds to the AER’s draft decision released in September this year.

Jemena’s Executive General Manager of Networks, Shaun Reardon, said that if endorsed by the AER, the revised Proposal would ensure Jemena can deliver affordable and reliable electricity across its electricity network – which services more than 380,000 customers across north-west Melbourne – for the five-year period beginning 1 July 2026.

“Our revised Proposal remains committed to keeping electricity costs steady for our customers,” said Mr Reardon.

“It also supports our crucial role in Australia’s energy transition with electricity consumption set to increase significantly over the next five years. 

“As part of the revised proposal, the distribution charges in a typical residential customer’s annual electricity bill will be $94 lower by the end of the next period compared to an annual bill in 2025-26. This reduction will be passed on to energy retailers to share with customers.

“This decrease in distribution charges is enabled by an increase in electricity consumption across our network, driven by data centres and major connections, and increased utilisation by existing customers as they increasingly use electricity to heat their homes and cook their meals.”

The revised Proposal also provides more information requested by the AER on critical projects required to take place on the Jemena Electricity Network during 2026-31.

“Our Proposal is a customer-led plan designed to meet the needs of our customers today and into the future. To develop this proposal we engaged with thousands of customers across multiple channels which included visitors to our GridTalk website, sessions facilitated in-person including our People’s Panel and virtual engagement. We held 80 engagement events and spent nearly 300 hours with customers over the past two years,” Mr Reardon said. 

“Throughout our engagement process we sought feedback from a diverse range of residential, local councils, large commercial, industrial, small, and medium-sized business customers.

“Many of our customers told us that energy affordability and cost-of-living continue to be their top priority. Our customers also said that maintaining the reliability of the electricity network and increasing resilience to withstand and recover from extreme weather events were important priorities.”

In October, Jemena took out the Engagement Institute’s Core Values Award in the energy category for its extensive customer engagement to develop its 2026-31 Proposal.

The revised 2026-31 Proposal outlines the following actions shaped by our customers:

Affordability:

• The distribution charges in a typical residential customer’s annual electricity bill will be $94 lower by the end of the next period compared to an annual bill in 2025-26.

Preparing for the future:

• Connect over 23,519 new residential customers and 646 businesses in north-west Melbourne.
• Introduce new tariff structures that encourage better network utilisation and improve price equity between solar and non-solar customers.
• Introduce new digital technologies to improve electricity system management and enable new sustainable products and services.
• Deliver a broad-based zone-substation redevelopment program to maintain current reliability levels.
• Build large-scale assets to serve new large customers such as data centres and hospitals.

Keeping our customers informed:

• Upgrade systems to keep customers better informed with near real-time information at times they need it the most.
• Develop a new portal to provide tailored information based on customer preferences and language needs with energy information.

The AER will now review Jemena’s revised 2026-31 Proposal and will release its final determination by 30 April 2026. The Proposal will then take effect from 1 July 2026.

To view the revised 2026-31 Proposal, click here.