Policy
Three NSW networks want about $128 million for the solar backstop. If nobody objects, the number stands
NSW made its distribution networks build the ability to remotely curtail rooftop solar. Building it cost money, and the networks have now applied to recover that money from customers through network charges: Endeavour Energy $35.9 million, Essential Energy $47.0 million, Ausgrid $45.3 million. The Australian Energy Regulator took submissions until 21 August 2026, and its own notice contains the sentence that makes that date matter.
The costs come from the NSW Emergency Backstop Mechanism order, which varied the networks’ licence conditions. The AER lists what the order requires them to do: enable remote solar curtailment during Minimum System Load events, update connection and customer processes, support flexible export limits, meet testing and reporting requirements, and integrate with the NSW Consumer Energy Resources Installer Portal.
In plain terms, that is the machinery for turning rooftop solar down when there is too much of it and too little demand for the grid to stay stable. Whether you think that is prudent engineering or an imposition on people who paid for their own panels, it had to be built, and this is the bill for building it.
The three applications
The networks have identified total incremental costs, capital and operating:
- Endeavour Energy - $35.9 million (real, $2024)
- Essential Energy - $47.0 million (real, $2024)
- Ausgrid - $45.3 million (real, $2026)
That is roughly $128 million in total, and we say roughly deliberately: two of the figures are expressed in real 2024 dollars and one in real 2026 dollars, so adding them mixes price bases. The AER will assess each application separately and the arithmetic here is only to give the order of magnitude.
The sentence that makes the deadline matter
The AER’s role, in its own description, is to determine whether a positive or negative
change event has occurred and, if so, the amount of prudent and efficient costs that should be
passed through to ensure consumers pay no more than necessary
.
Then this: “If we do not receive any submissions from stakeholders on a cost pass through application, after reviewing the application and supporting information we may not make a determination under clause 6.6.1(d) of the NER. If we do not make a determination then, in accordance with clause 6.6.1(e) of the NER, the amount proposed in the application is taken to be the approved pass through amount.”
Read that twice. Where nobody puts in a submission, the regulator may decline to determine the matter at all, and the number the network asked for becomes the number approved. Not by a finding that it was prudent and efficient, but by the operation of a rule about silence.
Our view, labelled as such: this is a defensible piece of process design and also a demanding one. A regulator should not have to run a full determination on an uncontested application, and the rule saves public resources where nobody disputes anything. But it puts the burden of scrutiny on whoever turns up, and the parties most able to turn up are the ones with the largest commercial interest in the outcome. A household paying the charge is not going to email costpassthroughs@aer.gov.au. Consumer advocates might, and this is precisely the kind of application they exist to look at.
What to do with it
Submissions closed 21 August 2026. They could address one or more of the three applications, and go to costpassthroughs@aer.gov.au. The AER also accepts requests to make a submission by other means at the same address. Endeavour’s application carries an effective date of 1 July 2027, so this is a cost that reaches bills in a future regulatory year rather than the current one.
The $128 million is the cost, not the bill, and the three numbers are not the same kind of number
The figure in the AER's notice is total incremental cost, capital and operating. What each network is actually asking to recover from customers in this regulatory period is set out in its own application, and it is a different set of numbers. We read all three.
| Network | Incremental cost | Revenue sought this period | How it is split |
|---|---|---|---|
| Endeavour Energy | $35.9m (real, $2024) | $16.9m (real, $2024) | $10.8m in 2027-28, $6.2m in 2028-29 (smoothed) |
| Essential Energy | $47.0m (real, $2024) | $58.5m (nominal) | $29.3m in each of 2027-28 and 2028-29 (smoothed) |
| Ausgrid | $45.3m (real, $2026) | $30.5m (nominal) | $15.4m in 2027-28, $15.1m in 2028-29 |
Read the units before adding anything up. The cost figures are quoted in real 2024 dollars for two networks and real 2026 dollars for the third, and the revenue figures are real 2024 for one and nominal for the other two. Adding the three revenue figures together would not produce a meaningful total, which is why we have not printed one. Essential Energy's revenue figure being larger than its cost figure is not an error on either side: they are measured on different bases and over different windows.
Our view, labelled as such: quoting a single combined dollar figure is how this kind of story usually gets told, and it is the least useful number available. What a customer can act on is which network they are connected to and what that network is asking for.
Updated 23 August 2026: the window has closed, and nothing is
published yet. Submissions closed on Friday 21 August. As at today the AER has published
no submissions on any of the three application pages, and all three still carry
the line that submissions are now open and will close on 21 August 2026
, so the pages have
not been updated rather than the record being complete. That is not evidence that nobody
made one. A submission can be received and published later, or received and withheld, and
we have not asked the AER. What can be said is that the next thing to watch is no longer the
deadline but the AER's determination of the prudent and efficient amount, which is where the
figures sought will either stand or be cut. We will report it when it lands.
The date that matters, and when this reaches a bill
Submissions on all three applications closed on 21 August 2026. We checked each application page separately rather than assuming a common deadline, and the date is the same for Endeavour Energy, Essential Energy and Ausgrid.
The effective date on all three is 1 July 2027, and the recovery falls in 2027-28 and 2028-29. So nothing here changes a bill this year or next. The AER's role, as it states, is to decide whether a positive or negative change event has occurred and then to determine the prudent and efficient amount that should pass through, which means the number a network asks for is a starting position and not a settled charge.
The applications are not bare invoices either. Ausgrid's filing runs to a public application document plus attachments that include the varied licence conditions, a June 2026 amendment to them, three letters from the Minister dated December 2024, December 2025 and June 2026, a letter from AEMO in January 2026 and a letter from the AER granting an extension. Anyone making a submission by 21 August has the underlying correspondence available to read.
Updated 1 August 2026: the original version of this story rested on the AER's consultation notice alone. We have since read each of the three networks' own application pages on the AER site, which is where the revenue-sought figures, the per-year splits, the 21 August 2026 submission deadline and the attachment lists come from. The AER site is behind bot protection and returns a challenge page to a plain fetch, so these were read in a real browser. We have not opened the full application PDFs or any attachment, so we describe the amounts and the document list as the AER's application pages state them, and make no claim about the engineering detail inside.
How we sourced this. The three applications and their dollar figures with
price bases, the NSW Emergency Backstop Mechanism order and the five obligations it imposes, the
AER’s described role under the National Electricity Rules, the quoted passage about
clauses 6.6.1(d) and 6.6.1(e) and the approved pass through amount, the 21 August 2026
submission deadline and the contact address, and the 1 July 2027 effective date on
Endeavour’s application are from the AER notice Have your say on cost pass through
applications from Endeavour Energy, Essential Energy and Ausgrid
, issued 24 July 2026 and
read on 31 July 2026. That page is client-rendered and returns nothing to a plain fetch; it was
read in a browser.
We have not read the three applications themselves or their supporting information, so we cannot say how the costs are composed or whether they are prudent and efficient, which is the question the AER exists to answer. The roughly $128 million total is our arithmetic on figures carrying two different price bases and is an order of magnitude, not a determined amount. The paragraph beginning “Our view” is opinion built on the sourced facts above it, and no claim is made about any network’s conduct.
Sources
- Australian Energy Regulator, Ausgrid cost pass through application (EBM) (read 1 August 2026): the 30 June 2026 lodgement, the $30.5 million nominal revenue sought split $15.4m in 2027-28 and $15.1m in 2028-29, the 21 August 2026 submission deadline, and the list of application attachments including the varied licence conditions, the June 2026 amendment, the ministerial correspondence, the AEMO letter and the AER extension letter.
- Australian Energy Regulator, Endeavour Energy cost pass through application (EBM) (read 1 August 2026): the $16.9 million (real, $2024) revenue sought, split $10.8m in 2027-28 and $6.2m in 2028-29 smoothed, and the 21 August 2026 deadline.
- Australian Energy Regulator, Essential Energy cost pass through application (EBM) (read 1 August 2026): the $58.5 million nominal revenue sought in equal $29.3m amounts across 2027-28 and 2028-29, and the 21 August 2026 deadline.
- Australian Energy Regulator, Have your say on cost pass through applications from Endeavour Energy, Essential Energy and Ausgrid (issue date 24 July 2026, read 31 July 2026): the three applications and their amounts, the NSW Emergency Backstop Mechanism order and its requirements, the AER's role, the clause 6.6.1(d) and 6.6.1(e) passage quoted in full, the 21 August 2026 deadline and submission address, and the effective date on Endeavour Energy's application.
- Australian Energy Regulator, application overview pages for the three EBM cost pass throughs, Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy and Essential Energy (all three read 23 August 2026, two days after the deadline): that each still carries the line that submissions are now open and will close on 21 August 2026, that no submissions are published on any of them, and Ausgrid's total incremental costs of $45.3 million stated on a real $2026 price basis.
Updated 1 August 2026. Added from the three networks' own applications, which the original story did not use: the revenue each is actually asking to recover this period ($16.9m real 2024 for Endeavour Energy, $58.5m nominal for Essential Energy, $30.5m nominal for Ausgrid), the fact that these are quoted on three different bases and cannot be summed, the 21 August 2026 submission deadline, and the 1 July 2027 effective date. The $128 million in the headline is the AER's total incremental cost figure and is unchanged.
Spotted an error? Tell us and we will check it against the sources and log the outcome here.