The Water Industry Competition Act 2006 (WIC Act) provides for private sector participation and competition in the NSW water and wastewater industry.
To facilitate this, infrastructure services can be ‘declared’ under the WIC Act. This means that a third party must be granted access to these services, subject to certain criteria and the establishment of an access agreement or determination. Such ‘third-party access’ can allow new entrants to compete with incumbent suppliers in the provision of water and/or wastewater services to end use customers.
Under the WIC Act, the provider of a declared service must develop a cost allocation manual, which sets out the basis on which the service provider will establish and maintain separate cost accounts for each of its declared services.
Sydney Water is a provider of declared services, and has submitted its cost allocation manual to IPART to consider for approval. Before we make our assessment, we are seeking stakeholder comments on Sydney Water’s proposed cost allocation manual.