IPART is considering limited changes to the procedural aspects of our guideline for scheme-specific reviews of wholesale water prices. In order to provide procedural fairness to all parties, we are consulting on these changes. We would like to hear from you.
Scheme-specific pricing reviews
IPART last reviewed pricing for wholesale supply of water and sewerage services for Sydney Water and Hunter Water’s service areas in 2017. Wholesale arrangements are needed when a licensee under the Water Industry Competition Act 2006 (WICA) requires connection to the water and/or sewer network to provide its own water services under WICA.
Our 2017 review established a mechanism for scheme-specific price reviews to handle wholesale situations where the broad principles of our wholesale determination did not provide a clear pricing outcome.
Either the wholesale customer or the wholesale service provider can request a scheme-specific review. The conduct of that review and the expectations on the parties are set out in a guideline that IPART published in January 2018.
We are proposing certain amendments to that 2018 guideline.
Why we are proposing changes
Since our guideline was published in January 2018 there have been no requests for a scheme-specific review, so that guideline has never been used to date.
The water industry as well as its strategic priorities, underpinning legislation and regulations have changed significantly in the past 7 years. We consider that the guideline should reflect the current circumstances and the intent of the current Tribunal.
We consider it would benefit all parties–wholesale customer and wholesale provider-if there were some additional procedural requirements in the guidelines for undertaking scheme specific reviews. This includes timeliness of providing necessary information or providing for IPART to engage external experts if required.
We are not proposing to make any changes to the pricing methodologies set out in our 2018 guideline. However, in the course of any scheme-specific review, the parties would be free to propose alternative methodologies.
What changes we are proposing
The draft updated guideline is available here. Changes from the January 2018 guideline are highlighted:
- More flexibility on timing in situations where parties do not provide the information that IPART requires to reach a decision, or where external expert advice is required.
- References to legislation and regulations have been brought up to date.
We want to hear from you
We welcome any submissions on the proposed changes to the scheme-specific review guideline. We will take these submissions into account before finalising changes to the guideline. Submissions close on 3 November 2025.