Aurora Energy is a

Government of Tasmania The Tasmanian Government is the executive branch of the Australian state of Tasmania. The leader of the party or coalition with the Confidence and supply, confidence of the Tasmanian House of Assembly, House of Assembly, the lower house of the ...

owned

electricity retailer Electricity retailing is the final sale of electricity from electricity generation, generation to the end-use consumer. This is the fourth major step in the electricity delivery process, which also includes electricity generation, generation, elec ...

in Australia.

History

Aurora was formed on 1 July 1998 under the ''Electricity Companies Act 1997'' as part of the breaking up of the

Hydro Electric Commission Hydro Tasmania, formerly the Hydro-Electric Commission (HEC), is a Tasmanian Government business enterprise which is the main electricity generator in Tasmania, Australia. Originally oriented towards hydro-electricity, owing to Tasmania's dr ...

. It is owned by the

.Aurora Energy Corporate Profile 2013
Aurora Energy The breaking up of the Hydro-Electric Commission resulted in the formation of three separate state-owned companies:

Hydro Tasmania Hydro Tasmania, formerly the Hydro-Electric Commission (HEC), is a Tasmanian Government business enterprise which is the main electricity generator in Tasmania, Australia. Originally oriented towards hydro-electricity, owing to Tasmania's dr ...

, which generates the power;

Transend Networks Transend Networks was Government of Tasmania owned business that operated was the electricity transmission network provider in Tasmania, Australia from 1998 until 2014. History Transend Networks was formed on 1 July 1998 under the ''Electricit ...

, which transmitted it across the state; and Aurora Energy, the retail arm, which sells and distributes it to customers. This was in anticipation of Tasmania joining the

National Electricity Market The National Electricity Market (NEM) is an arrangement in Australia's electricity sector for the connection of the electricity transmission grids of the eastern and southern Australia states and territories to create a cross-state wholesale ele ...

, which took place in May 2005. AETV Power owned and operated the

Tamar Valley Power Station Tamar Valley Power Station is a $230 million natural gas-fired power station located in Bell Bay in the Tamar Valley, Tasmania. It is owned by Hydro Tasmania, and is immediately adjacent to the decommissioned Bell Bay Power Station, which is ...

in northern Tasmania using natural gas that was piped in from

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

to generate electricity. On 1 June 2013, the power station, its customers and associated contracts were transferred to Hydro Tasmania. In late 2005, Aurora began trialling Aurora pay as you go, pre-paid electricity to selected areas of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. This system involved the Payguard meter, known as a

smart meter A smart meter is an electronic device that records information—such as consumption of electric energy, voltage levels, current, and power factor—and communicates the information to the consumer and electricity suppliers. Advanced meterin ...

. The official launch of the product, due to the success of the trial, went ahead in May 2007 making Aurora Energy the first electricity retailer to offer the pre-payment option in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. In 2012, Aurora failed in its application to the

Australian Energy Regulator The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) is the regulatory authority for the wholesale electricity and gas markets in Australia. The AER is a part of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, and enforces the rules established by the Austr ...

for electricity price increases of 15.5% over the following 5 years for infrastructure investment and

carbon tax A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions from producing goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the hidden Social cost of carbon, social costs of carbon emissions. They are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emis ...

implications. Instead, the Regulator limited the price rise to just 1.4% per year until 2017. One result of this was analysis of the current structure and subsequent re-structure of the business. Over the following years, a complete re-structure was undertaken, resulting in hundreds of redundancies throughout the business, from field worker level through to upper management. Retail contestability was introduced for very large customers in 2006, and in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011, additional, progressively smaller consumers of electricity were opened up for competition with Aurora. In 2013, Aurora prepared for the introduction of full retail contestability, including the separation of the retail arm from the rest of the business, and readying that retail arm for the tendered sale of the customer base to two or three private enterprises in late 2013, with sale date to be 1 January 2014. The market would then be opened for additional retailers to compete for customers from 1 July 2014. As the result of a government funded study, it was found that there would not be a benefit to the consumer at that point, and the tendering process was aborted. Although the sale of the customer base did not go ahead, the date of full retail contestability remained at 1 July 2014, and the market is now open for other entities to compete for all customers. As a result of the prior re-structuring, Aurora delivered a bonus to customers with an average 5% drop in electricity prices. The non-retail sections of Aurora Energy merged with

on 1 July 2014 to become

TasNetworks TasNetworks is a Government of Tasmania State owned company that is responsible for electricity transmission and distribution throughout Tasmania, Australia. It also owns and operates a telecommunications network throughout the state. TasNetw ...

.Tasmania throws switch on retail energy competition
''ABC News'' 30 June 2014 The retail arm of Aurora retained its original name and continues retailing electricity and natural gas in the state.

References

External links

* {{Energy in Tasmania, state=collapsed Companies based in Hobart Electric power distribution network operators in Australia Energy companies established in 1998 Government-owned companies of Tasmania Government-owned energy companies 1998 establishments in Australia