Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal Act 1992

This Act was put in place in July 1992 as the Government Pricing Tribunal Act 1992 and was substantially amended and renamed in January 1996 as the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal Act 1992. Under this Act, IPART has six major functions:

1. Regulating prices and reviewing pricing policies of government monopoly services
2. Undertaking reviews referred to it in relation to industry, pricing or competition
3. Arbitrating access disputes in relation to public infrastructure access regimes
4. Registering access agreements
5. Making recommendations, monitoring compliance and reporting in relation to water, electricity and gas licences under the Electricity Supply Act 1995, Gas Supply Act 1996, Hunter Water Act 1991, Sydney Water Act 1994, Sydney Water Catchment Management Act 1998
6. Investigating complaints under the competitive neutrality regime

Electricity Supply Act

The Electricity Supply Act 1995 provides the framework for introducing full retail competition in the NSW electricity industry. Under this Act, IPART is responsible for setting regulated retail tariffs for electricity and regulated retail charges. IPART also has a standing reference to determine the proportion of connection costs that a distribution network service provider may pass on to new customers and related matters.

The NSW Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme was introduced by amendments to the Electricity Supply Act 1995 in December 2002. Since 1 January 2003, electricity retail suppliers and certain other parties have been required to meet mandatory targets for abating the emission of greenhouse gases from electricity production and use. Under new powers contained in the amendments to the Electricity Supply Act 1995, IPART is responsible for:

• Determining and publishing key factors that are used to determine greenhouse gas benchmarks for the year
• Determining the greenhouse gas benchmark for each benchmark participant
• Determining the greenhouse shortfall and any liability for greenhouse penalty payable by a benchmark participant

IPART monitors compliance with greenhouse gas benchmarks and reports annually to the Minister regarding such compliance. It conducts or require the conducting of audits.

IPART has also been appointed as the Scheme Administrator by the Minister for Energy. As Scheme Administrator, IPART is responsible for:

• Accreditation of abatement certificate providers
• Verification of greenhouse gas abatement activity
• Administration of a registry of abatement certificates

As Scheme Administrator, IPART monitors and reports annually to the Minister on the compliance of accredited abatement certificate providers with the Act, the regulations, the greenhouse gas benchmark rules and any conditions of accreditation. IPART may also conduct or require the conducting of audits.

National Electricity Code

Under the National Electricity Code, IPART is responsible for determining the general level of distribution service prices and/or aggregate annual revenue requirement for electricity distribution network services in accordance with pricing methods and regulatory principles set out in Part D, Chapter 6 of the National Electricity Code.

Gas Supply Act 1996

The Gas Supply Act 1996 enables IPART to establish pricing mechanisms known as Gas Pricing Orders that regulate the tariffs, fees, charges and other payments that a standard supplier may impose for the supply of natural gas to small retail customers under standard form customer supply contracts. Section 27 of this Act enables IPART to:

• Establish a methodology within which tariff customer prices for delivered gas must be set
• Establish maximum tariffs or maximum average tariffs
• Prohibit the imposition of certain charges

National Gas Code

Under the National Third Party Access Code for Natural Gas Pipeline System (the Gas Code) the Tribunal is the Relevant Regulator in relation to distribution pipelines that are within NSW. Under the Gas Code, the key functions of IPART are to:

• Approve Access Arrangements which set out the basic terms and conditions under which access will be made available by an owner or operator of a covered pipeline
• Approve associate contracts entered into by owners or operators of a gas pipeline
• Arbitrate access disputes

Prices Regulation Act 1948

IPART has a number of functions under the Prices Regulation Act 1948, including:

• Determining the maximum prices or rates of goods or services declared by the Minister
• Holding inquiries with respect to specified goods and services

Transport Administration Act 1988

An access undertaking prepared by the Rail Infrastructure Corporation under the Transport Administration Act 1988 may confer or impose functions on IPART in connection with the undertaking.

Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal Regulation 2007

This Regulation modifies the application of the Commercial Arbitration Act 1984 to the arbitration of disputes (relating to a public infrastructure access regime) under Part 4A of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal Act 1992. In summary the Regulation:

• specifies when qualified legal representation may be available
• allows the arbitrator or umpire to decide when to conduct  arbitration hearings in private
• clarifies which costs are to be included in the costs incurred by the arbitrator or umpire.

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