2025 Review
The Department of Energy and Economic Diversification (DEED) is currently consulting on changes to implement the Economic Regulation Authority's (ERA) recommendations to amend the Wholesale Arrangements to:
- require Synergy to publish further detail on its standard product pricing method;
- rectify an error introduced in 2023 to ensure that Synergy is restricted from offering buy-side standard products to entities with market power; and
- update outdated references, including provisions relating to the now abolished Clean Energy Act 2011 (Cth).
You can view a copy of the Exposure Draft on the Consultation on proposed amendments Electricity Generation and Retail Corporation (EGRC) Scheme’s Wholesale Arrangements web page.
Stakeholders are invited to provide written feedback on the Exposure Draft before 5:00pm (AWST) on 9 June 2026.
2023 Review
Amendments to the Electricity Generation and Retail Corporation (EGRC) Scheme were published to implement the recommendations from the ERA’s 2023 Review.
Changes to the EGRC Regulations and underlying instruments included:
- removal of the disclosure mechanism;
- removal of the generation restricted information ringfencing requirement;
- transfer of an audit function from the Auditor General to the ERA; and
- restriction on supply of Standard Products from Synergy to entities with a Material Portfolio as identified under section 2.16C of the ESM Rules.
2020 Review
Amendments were made to the Electricity (Standard Products) Wholesale Arrangements 2014 (Wholesale Arrangements). The Wholesale Arrangements provide for the maximum spread between the price of buy and sell Standard Products offered by Synergy.
The ERA’s 2020 Report to the Minister for Energy on the Effectiveness of the EGRC Scheme recommended reducing the buy-sell spread applied to Standard products from the pre-existing 20% to 15% from 1 July 2022 and to 10% from 1 July 2023.
A Ministerial Amendment Instrument was made by the Minister for Energy and gazetted on 29 April 2022 to give effect to the reduced buy-sell spread applied to Standard Products under the Scheme from 20% to 15% on 1 July 2022. The Ministerial Amendment Instrument is available on the WA Legislation website
2018 Review
Regulatory changes to address matters raised in the ERA’s Scheme review report included:
- a reduced maximum buy-sell spread for Standard Products from 20% to 15%, from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020;
- a requirement for Synergy to publish the foundation transfer price mechanism and any replacements to the mechanism. This mechanism establishes the price of wholesale supplies used by Synergy to service non-contestable customers and contestable customer contracts established before the Synergy-Verve Energy merger;
- the removal of the reference to the original method for applying the foundation transfer price mechanism; and
- moving the annual Scheme reviews conducted by the ERA to every two years.
Ministerial instruments were gazetted on 23 July 2019 to give effect to the reduced buy-sell spread and removal of the original method for applying the foundation transfer price mechanism from the Electricity (Standard Products) Wholesale Arrangement 2014. These Ministerial instruments are available below:
Changes to the Electricity Corporations (Electricity Generation and Retail Corporation) Regulations were also made to require Synergy to publish the current foundation transfer price mechanism (and any replacements to the mechanism) and to extend the frequency of Scheme reviews.
2016 Review
Documents relating to the ERA 2016 EGRC Scheme review are available below:
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