The Right to Power report

The first national investigation into First Nations experiences of prepayment for electricity, by Original Power and the First Nations Clean Energy Network, in partnership with Western Sydney University, Tangentyere Aboriginal Corporation, Nulungu Research Institute and Jabalbina Aboriginal Corporation.

It draws on interviews with over 300 households, service providers and electricity retailers, and data from approximately 10,000 household meters. It found First Nations energy customers using prepayment are among the world's most energy insecure.

The report's six recommendations

1. Require better reporting by retailers, and performance-based monitoring, to achieve meaningful reductions in disconnection events.
2. Adopt clearly defined energy hardship metrics, including an obligation for retailers to pro-actively identify and respond to customers in financial hardship.
3. Remove barriers that exclude prepayment consumers from accessing, owning and enjoying the full benefits of consumer energy resources, including rooftop solar, energy efficiency and insulation upgrades, and community microgrids.
4. Implement measures to assist vulnerable people during extreme temperatures and other emergency events.
5. Implement national initiatives including a Priority Services Register that improves coordination of targeted support for prepayment and other vulnerable customers.
6. Remove mandated prepayment arrangements and provide prepayment customers with the same consumer protections and choice of energy services that non-prepayment meter customers enjoy.