AEMC backs draft rule to speed EV charger rollout under $40m federal program

AEMC moves to back Commonwealth charging program

The Australian Energy Market Commission has released a draft determination and draft rule to support the Commonwealth Government’s Accelerating Electric Vehicle Charging Program, after a rule change request from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. The AEMC said on 24 September 2026 that the proposed amendment to the National Electricity Rules would remove regulatory barriers for participating distribution network service providers to provide approved services under the program and recover a set proportion of the costs from electricity consumers. ⁴¹

How the proposed rollout would work

The draft rule is designed around two deployment settings. For kerbside charging in metropolitan areas, charge point operators would have first right of refusal over identified sites, with distribution networks stepping in as providers of last resort if no operator takes up a site. For regional blackspots, the AEMC says participating DNSPs would identify locations outside exclusion zones and, if successful in a competitive tender, install DC chargers and appoint a charge point operator and/or an e-mobility service provider to supply charging services. ⁴⁶

Industry coverage of the draft rule said the Commonwealth program targets regional charging blackspots and high-density kerbside areas where residents may not have off-street charging, and that the program would place an estimated 14,000 chargers where they are most needed. The AEMC’s own materials say the draft rule would classify the relevant network activities as standard control services, cap how much consumers can be asked to fund, and set out the mechanics for cost recovery. ³⁴

Costs, timing and funding conditions

The AEMC and reporting from ABC and 7NEWS both say the Commonwealth would cover about 30 per cent of the eligible infrastructure cost, with the remaining 70 per cent recovered through electricity bills. The AEMC’s chair, Anna Collyer, said the likely consumer impact would be about $1 a year for a typical residential customer over five years, while the draft rule itself applies only to infrastructure delivered under the specific Commonwealth program and not to broader network-owned EV charging more generally. ³²⁷⁴

Submissions to the draft determination close on 5 November 2026, according to the AEMC. The commission’s project page says the broader rule change request on this program has been running since a consultation paper was published on 25 June 2026, with a public forum held in August and a draft determination published on 24 September 2026. ⁴⁶⁷

Where this fits in the wider network regulation review

The EV charging rule change sits alongside the AEMC’s Electricity Network Regulation Review, which formally commenced in June 2026 and is examining what services networks should provide, how revenues are set, and how network businesses interact with contestable markets. The review is also considering related requests from Energy Networks Australia and Nexa Advisory on whether distributors should be able to provide kerbside EV charging as a regulated service and how ring-fencing should apply in emerging energy markets. ⁵⁶⁴

The AEMC says the Commonwealth charging program is being handled on an accelerated timeline so it can start in 2027, while broader questions about the network role in EV charging remain under separate review. The commission’s materials also make clear that the current draft rule does not resolve those wider issues, instead limiting itself to the time-, scope- and funding-bound Commonwealth program. ⁴⁵