Who are we?
Icon Water Limited is an unlisted public company wholly owned by the ACT Government. Our voting shareholders are the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water.
We own, manage and operate all water and sewerage services for the ACT and the bulk of Queanbeyan. We’re also major shareholders in ActewAGL Retail and Evoenergy. These investments are joint ventures with Jemena Limited and AGL Energy Limited respectively.
Our company has corporate reporting and compliance obligations under Corporations Law. We comply with 73 Acts, Regulations and Codes. These include the Water and Sewerage Act 2000, Utilities Act 2000, Water Resources Act 2007, Environment Protection Act 1997 and the Public Health Act 1997.
Our history
We have been providing essential services to Canberra for over 100 years
Water and electricity services within the ACT have a long, and storied, history. Our functions were originally provided by the Commonwealth Public Service. In 1962 the Federal Government transferred these responsibilities to the newly formed Australian Capital Territory Electricity Authority (ACTEA). Then, in 1988, the ACTEA was reorganised into the Australian Capital Territory Electricity and Water Authority (ACTEWA). When ACTEWA was abolished, in 1995, ACTEW Corporation Limited (now Icon Water Limited) was established as a Territory-owned corporation, under the Corporations Law, on 1 July 1995.
In 2000, ActewAGL was formed as Australia’s first multi-utility public-private partnership. This brought together the management of electricity, water and gas services. The ACT Government decided to only retain ownership of the water assets within Icon Water (then ACTEW Corporation) and outsourced the water operations and maintenance services to ActewAGL.
Icon Water (then ACTEW Corporation) resumed full responsibility for the ownership, operation and maintenance of all water and sewerage assets on 1 July 2012. This re-focus on services transformed us into a vertically integrated water utility.
Have a look at this factsheet for a breakdown of the simple differences between your utilities.
Corporate services necessary for the functioning of a utility have been integrated with electricity and water since 1988. These services include customer billing, meter reading, fleet management, human resource systems, financial systems, 24-hour faults and emergency call centres. We have continued to receive each of these services, as a customer of ActewAGL, which has allowed seamless continuity for our customers. Even as we’ve transformed into the water utility we are today.
Icon Water's Corporate Structure
Notes:
1. Each of Jemena Networks (ACT) Pty Ltd, Icon Distributions Investments Limited, Icon Retail Investments Limited and AGL ACT Retail Investments Pty Ltd are wholly owned subsidiaries of Jemena Limited, Icon Water Limited and AGL Energy Limited respectively
2. Jemena Networks (ACT) Pty Ltd and Icon Distribution Investments Limited are equal partners in the ActewAGL Distribution partnership (AAD). AAD includes energy networks (evoenergy), corporate services and contestable services
3. Icon Retail Investments Limited and AGL ACT Retail Investments Pty Ltd are equal partners in the ActewAGL Retail Partnership (AAR)
4. ActewAGL Retail Investments Pty Ltd is a holding company for new energy investments of AAR. The AAR partners hold all of the issued shares in the company as partnership assets.
Icon Water's Partnerships
We are unique in Australia. We’re the only water and sewerage business that also manages investments in electricity and gas networks through partnerships with private companies.
Under the Territory-owned Corporations Act we must maximise sustainable financial returns to the Territory on its investment in Icon Water and ActewAGL. To manage this investment we have established two subsidiary companies:
- Icon Distribution Investments Limited partners with Jemena Networks in the ActewAGL Distribution Partnership (EvoEnergy from 1 January 2018)
- Icon Retail Investments Limited partners with AGL Energy Limited in the ActewAGL Retail Partnership.
Collectively, these two partnerships form the ActewAGL joint venture.
