What it does
The Electricity Industry Act 2000 is the principal statute governing the post-privatisation Victorian electricity market. Its core function, stated in s.1, is “to regulate the electricity supply industry”. In practice this means three interlocking objectives: (1) licensing and prudential oversight of participants; (2) economic regulation of prices, terms and service standards; and (3) prescriptive consumer-protection and safety rules that override ordinary contract law.
Part 2 is the operational heart. Section 16 prohibits generation, transmission, distribution or retail sale of electricity without a licence or exemption. Licences are issued by the Essential Services Commission (the Commission) under ss.18–20 subject to financial and technical viability tests (s.19(2)). The Commission may attach conditions (s.20(2)), including deemed conditions relating to standing offers (s.35), renewable-energy purchases (ss.40G, 40FF), greenhouse-gas benchmarking (s.40R) and hardship policies (s.43). Ministerial licence conditions can override Commission conditions in defined circumstances (ss.33AB–33AJ), creating a dual-control architecture that has been used to impose connection-timeframe obligations and RoLR cost-recovery.
Price regulation operates at two levels. The Governor in Council may fix tariffs for prescribed customers by Order (s.13), while the Commission regulates distribution charges under the Essential Services Commission Act 2001 (s.12). Divisions 2A and 5A add generation-facilitation pricing principles and feed-in tariff regimes. The premium solar feed-in tariff (ss.40FA–40FC) and transitional feed-in tariff (TFiT) schemes (ss.40FAB–40FCA) are statutory overlays that require retailers and distributors to credit qualifying solar and TFiT generation at fixed rates ($0.60/kWh and $0.25/kWh respectively) for defined periods. General renewable-energy feed-in terms must now be published with a minimum rate determined annually (s.40FBA, inserted 2025).