Have you been invited to register for our People's Panel?

We recently emailed our customers and invited them to register for our People's Panel. If you received the email and have more questions, we hope we've answered them here. If not, please contact us and we'll get back to you.

What is the People's Panel?

The People's Panel will be comprised of approximately 50 independently selected South Australians who will help guide our next 5-year planning process for the investments and services that we'll deliver between 2025-2030.

The Panel will help us consider:

• What customers think is the best balance of investments in service and price?
• How the costs of households and businesses feeding solar into the grid (export tariffs) can be shared fairly?

The Panel will help inform our planning and will be run by an independent organisation democracyCo to ensure that its recommendations reflect the views of the Panel.

Why are we holding this People’s Panel?

SA Power Networks is the sole electricity distributor in South Australia, delivering electricity and critical infrastructure to almost 900,000 customers. As part of our 2025 – 2030 Regulatory Proposal, we are committed to ensuring the needs of our customers are reflected in our proposal to the Australian Energy Regulator.

The People’s Panel’s recommendations will be an important of our proposal, building on our prior engagements with our customers.

As part of this we commit to:

• Presenting as many of the People’s Panel’s recommendations as possible to the Australian Energy Regulator as part of our pricing proposal.
• Where we don't take a People’s Panel recommendation to the Regulator, we will provide the reasoning to both the Regulator and Panel participants.
• Publishing the People’s Panel report in full and unchanged on our website and presenting it to the SA Power Networks Board.
• Reflecting the Panel’s recommendations relating to export tariffs in our pricing proposal.

How is the Panel selected?

It's important that the Panel consists of a mix of people representative of our South Australian community. To ensure this diversity, we have emailed customers and invited them to register their interest in being a part of the Panel. The registration process will require you to provide some demographic information about yourself such as your age, gender and background.

The final Panel will then be selected by democracyCo to ensure we achieve an appropriate mix representative of our South Australian community.

SA Power Networks will not be involved in the final selection of the Panel.

Will I get paid?

No, you will be participating on the Panel as a volunteer but if you are selected, you will be eligible to receive an honorarium for your time and participation.

If you live in the Adelaide Metropolitan region, you will receive a maximum of $720 for your participation. Regional participants will receive $960. For Panel members living more than 100 kms away from the Adelaide CBD, SA Power Networks will also organise and pay for travel and accommodation.

Meals and refreshments will also be provided during the sessions.

When?

The Panel will meet on the following dates. Before you register, please ensure you are available to attend ALL dates.

The Panel meetings will be held in person, however, the health and safety of our participants and staff are paramount, so if it is clear in the lead up to the sessions that there is a risk to health, we will move the sessions online and support participants to participate and contribute fully.

Want more information? Click here to read our Information Sheet for the People's Panel.

Take the opportunity to be the voice of your community and shape future levels of energy services and cost to customers.

Expressions of interest for the People's Panel have now closed.

Leah Bullivant from democracyCo will get in touch with selected participants for the Panel by Monday, 14 November 2022.

For more information, contact Leah Bullivant or read our Frequently asked questions.