The Office of the Regulator-General has issued guidelines which codify the new obligations. Compliance with the guideline is a condition of the distributors licenses.
All distributors compensate customers for surge damage in some circumstances.
However, the guidelines are a significant improvement on current practice, by providing customers with a right to compensation, standardising compensation arrangements and establishing avenues for customer redress. The initiative implements a decision taken in the Office s recent Electricity Distribution Price Determination. The guidelines were developed in consultation with customers representatives, the distributors and the Energy and Water Ombudsman. The surge compensation scheme is one of a number of initiatives introduced by the Office in 2001 to protect customers with respect to the reliability and quality of supply. Distributors have a financial incentive to reduce the incidence of surges and brownouts over time.