Developers banned from locking apartment residents into energy deals

Following further consultation with industry and consumer groups, the next phase of the review process would assess protections for Victorians living in existing buildings with embedded networks, while the government would also develop details of a new licensing regime for anyone who supplies and sells electricity into residential sites.

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The Property Council of Australia, representing the nation’s largest residential developers, said it supported the Victorian government’s push to provide customers with more choice about energy.

However, the group said it was crucial that any new renewable energy requirements for existing networks did not impact their capacity to provide low-cost power, “especially in settings like retirement living communities where the majority of residents are on fixed-pension payments”.

“The Property Council has been focused on having productive discussions about the best way to implement the proposed new renewable energy requirements for local energy networks that balance renewable energy and physical infrastructure requirements,” a spokesperson said.

“We look forward to resolution on this in the near future.”

The announcement comes as consumers across the east coast face power bill increases of hundreds of dollars a year, as the fallout from the war in Ukraine worsens a global energy crunch and drives up the cost of operating the coal- and gas-fired power stations that still supply the bulk of the nation’s main grid.

These important reforms will improve consumer protections for Victorian households, while supporting council’s mission to power Melbourne with 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp

Rate changes from electricity suppliers and increases in “default market offers” – the price caps on what retailers can charge those that don’t take up special deals or bundle their utilities bills – are adding to Australians’ worsening cost-of-living pressures as inflation sits at a two-decade high.

City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the Victorian government’s reforms would assist in enabling the transition to “innovative renewable energy solutions”.

“These important reforms will improve consumer protections for Victorian households, while supporting council’s mission to power Melbourne with 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030 and become a zero emissions city by 2040,” she said.

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