How can sellers prepare for and demonstrate compliance with the reforms?

EWON membership requirement

The EWON membership requirement ensures that customers have access to a free and independent dispute resolution service if they are unable to resolve a complaint directly with their seller. 

Sellers should be able to demonstrate from 1 July 2026 that:

• you are a current member of EWON, or can demonstrate evidence of reasonable endeavours to have become a member by 1 July 2026 
• your membership covers all relevant embedded network services you provide (for example, electricity, gas, hot water or centralised air-conditioning)
• your membership remains current and up to date.

Customers should be able to easily access EWON. Sellers should advise customers of their rights to access EWON and engage constructively in EWON's complaint handling processes.

Website publication requirements 

The publication requirements are intended to ensure that information about embedded network services and prices is easy to find and access. This helps current customers understand the services they receive and the prices they pay and helps prospective customers make informed decisions before moving to a premises within an embedded network.

IPART expects the information to be publicly accessible and available on the seller’s website without requiring customers to create an account, log in or contact the seller directly. 

Published information should be:

• publicly accessible at all times (subject to reasonable outages for maintenance)
• easy to locate
• accurate, complete and not misleading, matching the prices charged and services supplied to customers at the addresses of their premises
• kept up to date, reflecting changes as soon as practicable after they’ve been made (e.g. to prices)
• presented in a way that customers can understand.

Information that is only available through a customer portal, mobile application or other restricted-access platform may not meet this expectation unless the information is also publicly accessible.

Some sellers have raised concerns about publishing commercially sensitive price information and identified difficulties in publishing other prescribed technical information. We have advised the relevant NSW Government Department (the Department of Climate Change, Environment Energy and Water) of these potential difficulties and are seeking clarification on the intent of the legislation. We will update this page as further information becomes available.

Information about services, prices and premises 

The information should allow anyone to readily identify:

• the embedded network services supplied (for example, electricity, gas, hot water or centralised air-conditioning)
• the address of each premises where those services are supplied 
• the prices that apply to those services, including any relevant price components (such as daily supply charges or usage charges for each embedded network service that applies to them). 

The published information should clearly link each premises to the services supplied at that location and the prices that apply to each of the relevant embedded network services you provide. Further, prices should be expressed as the total amount payable by the customer, inclusive of GST where applicable.

Where relevant, sellers should also clearly explain:

• the customer group to which a price applies
• any additional fees, discounts or site-specific pricing arrangements that may affect the amount payable by a customer.

Once IPART maximum prices commence, sellers should ensure the published prices do not exceed the applicable maximum prices.

What is a premises? 

Premises has a broad meaning and can include residential homes, other places of residence (for example, a caravan park where tenants reside permanently), shopping centres and commercial sites.

Where the same prices apply across multiple units or tenancies, sellers may identify the building or site as the relevant premises rather than listing each unit separately. For example, a residential apartment building may be identified as the premises where all apartments are charged the same prices.

Information about centralised air-conditioning systems 

If a seller supplies centralised air-conditioning services, customers should be able to readily identify:

• the ratio of cooling energy produced to electrical energy consumed
• the total electrical energy consumed during the previous financial year
• the total cooling energy produced during the previous financial year
• the system brand name or model number.

Information should be updated annually using data from the previous financial year.

Where calculations or estimates have been used, sellers should clearly explain:

• the methodology used
• any assumptions made
• any limitations associated with the information published.

IPART recognises that some centralised air-conditioning systems and metering configurations may not be capable of directly measuring all required information. 

Where actual measurements are not available, IPART would generally consider it reasonable for sellers to publish estimates, provided you use a reasonable methodology and clearly explain the assumptions, methodology and limitations of those estimates.