Audit Objective
This report summarises our financial audit results of the Queensland Government’s energy entities for 2017–18.
Overview
In Queensland, most electricity is generated, transmitted, and distributed by state government-owned corporations and controlled entities. These include CS Energy, Stanwell, Powerlink, Energy Queensland, Ergon Energy, and 30 subsidiaries.
CS Energy and Stanwell are electricity generators. They produce electricity and sell into the National Electricity Market. Powerlink transmits electricity from generators to Energy Queensland, the distributor. Energy Queensland then distributes electricity from the transmission network to consumers. From there, electricity retailers purchase and sell electricity to households and businesses.
Audit results
All energy entities have generally effective year-end close processes. This allows them to produce quality financial statements in a timely manner. We issued unmodified audit opinions for the financial statements of each of the entities. Readers can rely on the results in the financial statements. All audits were completed within legislative deadlines.
The AER uses Regulatory Information Notices (RINs) to collect information from the transmission and distribution entities to make decisions about the maximum income these entities can earn for a specified period. These notices are subject to an audit (if the information is based on actual data) or a review (if the information is based on estimated data). We issued to Energex and Ergon, six unmodified audit opinions and five review conclusions regarding the information they provided to the AER. All opinions and conclusions were issued within AER deadlines.
