Energy Consumer Data Right

The Consumer Data Right (CDR) is planned to be rolled out in the energy sector in 2022 – so what does it mean for you?

The CDR is a Federal Government initiative that will give you the right to share data between service providers of your choosing. It is already being used in the banking sector.

Under the draft laws, all electricity providers will be required to allow households and businesses to access their energy data. It means you could choose to share your energy usage data with other providers – which could make it easier to compare and access better deals.

The CDR is an opt-in service – you decide whether to share your data and have visibility on who it’s being shared with.

What we’ve been doing

EWON has been actively engaged in the consultation process for the Energy CDR since 2019, to ensure consumer protections are in place.

The Ombudsman Janine Young and senior EWON staff have met regularly with Commonwealth Treasury and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to develop the energy CDR. We’ve provided consolidated feedback from energy and water schemes about likely consumer complaint issues and worked with Treasury to develop effective external dispute resolution models for responding to energy complaints associated with the CDR.

We have also made a number of submissions about the CDR.

• Feb 2020 (PDF 500KB) - Submission to ACCC on the CDR implementation, in particular the role of non-accredited third parties receiving data. We addressed privacy aspects and recommended that third parties be treated as agents of accredited persons for the purposes of dispute resolution, meaning the accredited person would be responsible for the complaint.
• Aug 2020 (PDF 450KB): Submission to ACCC on energy rules for the CDR. Our view is that the Internal Dispute Resolution required of banks by ASIC represents better practice and should be adopted for the energy CDR.

Our role in CDR-related dispute resolution will be dependent on which body is selected to be the holder and distributor of consumer data. We’ll continue to engage with the ACCC as the mechanisms for the CDR are further developed.