Past review
15/07/2011
We released our final report on SEQ grid service charges for 2011–12 in July 2011.
| Grid service provider | Approved 2010–11, $ million | QCA recommendation 2011–12, $ million |
| Seqwater | 370.0 | 398.8 |
| WaterSecure | 317.7 | 306.5 |
| LinkWater | 192.5 | 205.7 |
| Total grid service charges | 880.2 | 911.0 |
The total recommended 2011–12 GSCs averaged $3,299/ML. This compares to an average of $2,642/ML in 2010–11. The 25% increase in $/ML costs was largely due to a decline in expected volume of 17% in 2011–12 in association with a cost base that was largely fixed.
The Price Regulator approved our recommended GSCs on 20 October 2011.
We released our draft report on SEQ grid service charges for 2011–12 on 30 May 2011.
We prepared an investigation plan in October 2010 to set out the manner and timeframes in which we were going to investigate GSCs for 2011–12.
We were aware that the GSPs were relatively newly established and that information systems were not yet fully developed. Therefore, we proposed to largely maintain the approach adopted by the Queensland Water Commission (QWC) in setting GSCs in preceding years, including risk allocation and tariff structure.
We received a direction notice under the SEQ Water Market Rules to investigate and recommend bulk water GSCs for 2011–12. We were also required to take into account the Queensland Water Commission’s manual for setting grid service charges.
The GSCs were to be paid by the SEQ Water Grid Manager to three grid service providers— Seqwater, WaterSecure and LinkWater.
To assist the GSPs to provide information for the purposes of recommending the GSCs for 2011–12, we developed the SEQ grid service charges 2011–12 information requirements.