The National Electricity Market (NEM) is a wholesale market for the supply of electricity from generators to market customers (such as retailers). The construction of Basslink connected Tasmania to Victoria and enabled Tasmania to join the NEM, which occurred in May 2005.

The National Energy Customer Framework (NECF) commenced on 1 July 2012, bringing in a new set of national laws, rules, and regulations governing the retail sale and distribution of energy to consumers. The NECF is designed to provide a single, simplified, national regulatory regime intended to deliver efficiencies in terms of regulatory certainty, reduced compliance costs, and competitive benefits to consumers. The NECF does not cover technical regulation of energy suppliers.

Please note some of the Acts and Regulations listed below are not administered by the Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources but are administered in whole or part by other Tasmanian Government departments. The assignment of legislation to Ministers and Agencies is undertaken through the Administrative Arrangements Act 1990. The current Administrative Arrangements Order may be viewed at The Law.

The Energy Ombudsman provides a dispute resolution service for electricity and natural gas customers in Tasmania who have been unable to resolve a complaint with their energy retailer or distributor.

The Tasmanian Economic Regulator (the Regulator) was established on 1 June 2012 under the Economic Regulator Act 2009, and replaced the statutory positions of Electricity Regulator, Director of Gas, Government Prices Oversight Commission, and Water and Sewerage Economic Regulator. The Regulator is independent of the Tasmanian Government.