In short:
The Federal Government has lodged a rule change request with the Australian Energy Market Commission to fund a $40 million EV charging program by adding approximately 70 per cent of the cost to electricity consumers’ bills from 2029. The proposal would deliver around 14,000 new public chargers across Australia, with a modelled peak residential bill impact of $0.79 to $1.44 per year.
Consumers to cover most of program cost
The Federal Government has formally asked the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) to change electricity market rules so that the cost of a new $40 million EV charging program can be recovered from electricity consumers nationwide — including Wyndham households.
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) lodged its rule change request, the Accelerating Electric Vehicle Charging Program, on Tuesday 28 April 2026. The request is currently listed as pending on the AEMC’s register.
The program aims to deliver around 14,000 new public EV chargers across Australia by 30 June 2029 through grants awarded to electricity Distribution Network Service Providers (DNSPs).
In its rule change request, DCCEEW states the program “seeks to identify and leverage the complementary strengths of Charge Point Operators (CPOs) and Distribution Network Service Providers (DNSPs) to rapidly rollout Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (EVCI)”.
Approximately 30 per cent of the program’s total cost would be covered by Federal Government grants, with the remaining 70 per cent recovered from electricity consumers, including Wyndham residents, through standard network tariffs by adding the costs to each network’s Regulatory Asset Base.
Under a section of the document titled “Appropriateness of socialising costs”, DCCEEW writes: “This program seeks to recover approximately 70% of incurred costs from electricity consumers.”
The cost-sharing model raises questions for households in growth areas like Wyndham, where many residents already face significant cost-of-living pressures. As previously reported in The Costly Road To EVs, electric vehicles remain financially out of reach for many local families due to high upfront purchase prices, limited charging access in outer-suburban areas, and rising electricity costs.
The department justifies the cost-sharing model on the basis that the benefit is shared. “This program is not about serving the immediate needs of existing EV users. It is seeking to accelerate the uptake of EVs by kickstarting the EVCI market to support current and future users, and with the key benefit from this program being driving emissions reductions,” the document states.
The proposal arrives as Wyndham continues to expand its own EV infrastructure. In recent years, Wyndham City has installed multiple public chargers across the municipality, as covered in Charge Your Electric Vehicle with Ease in Wyndham’s New Charging Locations. Council also secured a Federal Government grant under the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s Driving the Nation Fund to install 13 EV chargers at its Hoppers Crossing depot, as detailed in Wyndham City’s $2M Electric Vehicle Push.
Recent global fuel supply pressures have also prompted some Wyndham residents to weigh the long-term costs of EV ownership, as covered in Fuel Shock Sparks EV Debate.
DCCEEW has modelled a peak residential bill impact of “$0.79-1.44” per year, depending on the network area. The department states the impact is “not expected to be realised until 2029 so is not expected to impact on Australian cost of living pressures during the current global fuel supply chain disruptions”.
The department values the program’s emissions reduction benefit at $809 million in 2025 net present value, stating “the value of emissions reductions from this program exceeds consumer costs by a factor of more than 8 times”.
The DCCEEW proposal is one of several rule change requests on EV charging currently before the AEMC. Industry body Energy Networks Australia has lodged a separate request seeking to allow electricity networks to install, own and maintain kerbside chargers as a regulated service. A competing request from Nexa Advisory, backed by the Clean Energy Council and Australian Energy Council, would tighten ring-fencing rules to prevent networks expanding into EV charging.
The full DCCEEW rule change request is available on the AEMC website at https://www.aemc.gov.au/rule-changes/facilitating-ev-charging-infrastructure-rollout-under-commonwealth-grants
The AEMC has not yet initiated its formal consultation process on the request. When initiated, a consultation paper will be published for stakeholder submissions.
