ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the policy environment and the energy retailers' risk-averse responses to it. It illustrates meta-regulation in the rule creation stage, and the unplanned ways that the regulator needed to cope with conflicting objectives. The consultation process for the Electricity Retail Code took more than a year to complete, and during the consultation process the Essential Services Commission (ESC) not only held many meetings of its working group but also held public fora and managed smaller sub-groups that addressed specific matters, such as customer financial hardship. The ESC's work programme was significant and while it recognised that providing for consumer aggregation and co-operatives would be desirable, it did not investigate the concept sufficiently because its resources were limited and the supporters of the concept were not as politically active as other stakeholders. A final theme is the government's need to intervene in the market to protect its own interests.
