Australian electricity and gas markets - September 2021 update

What you need to do:

Stakeholders should note the new rules and reports published below, and note the deadlines for making submissions.

There have been a number of very significant developments and we have published detailed articles on them – the links to our articles are included in the information below.

National Electricity Rules

• On 2 September 2021, the AEMC initiated and published a consultation paper on the Governance of distributed energy resources technical standards rule change project to introduce new governance arrangements for setting technical standards for distributed energy resources (DER) in the national electricity market (NEM). Submissions on the consultation paper are due by 7 October 2021 ahead of the AEMC's expected publication of a draft rule and determination in December 2021. More details can be found here. 
• On 9 September 2021:
  • the AEMC published a final determination confirming that no delay was needed to the implementation of five minute settlement (5MS), which began as scheduled on 1 October 2021. 5MS had previously been delayed from its expected 1 July 2021 commencement due to COVID-19 impacts on the industry. For more information, the AEMC's final determination can be viewed here.
  • the AEMC published directions papers on options for the scheduling and provision of essential system services to ensure system security as part of each of its Synchronous services markets and Capacity commitment mechanism for system security and reliability services rule changes. The directions papers can be found here and here.

• On 16 September 2021:
  • the AEMC published a Directions paper for the Review of the regulatory frameworks for metering services which can be found here.
  • the AEMC published a draft determination and draft rule as part of its Primary frequency response incentive arrangements rule change. Submissions on the draft determination and rule are due by 28 October 2021, and further details can be viewed here. 

• On 30 September 2021, the AEMC delayed the time to publish the final determination and rule change for the Generator registrations and connections rule change by two weeks. The final rule and determination is now due by 21 October 2021 and can be viewed here. 

National Energy Retail Rules

No retail rule change requests were received in September. No AEMC determinations relevant to the NERR were published.

National Gas Rules

• On 8 September 2021:
  • the AEMC received a rule change request and announced it will initiate the rule change on 21 October 2021 in relation to Victorian declared wholesale gas market (DWGM) distribution connected facilities. The rule change request is connected to the AEMC's Review into extending the regulatory frameworks to hydrogen and renewable gases (detailed below) can be viewed here.
  • the AEMC announced it will initiate, and release a consultation paper on, its Review into extending the regulatory frameworks to hydrogen and renewable gases. Further information on this pending market review can be found here.

Other updates

• On 2 September 2021:
  • the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Bill, which establishes a new framework for the construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of offshore electricity projects, was introduced to the Federal Parliament. The Bill has been referred to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 14 October 2021. Interested parties can view our article on the bill here. 
  • the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Titles Administration and Other Measures) Act 2021 (Cth), which significantly amends Australia's offshore oil and gas decommissioning laws, received royal assent. We analyse these changes in our recent article here. 

• On 23 September 2021, the AER released a consultation paper seeking feedback on issues being considered as it develops the Export Tariff Guidelines (in relation to its recent Access, pricing and incentive arrangements for distributed energy resources rule change). The AER is accepting feedback on the consultation paper by 4 November 2021. Interested parties can find more information here.

Click here to listen to the first episode of the Energy Transformed podcast series produced by Ashurst in partnership with Renew Economy. In this episode, broadcast 21 September 2021, Ashurst partners Paul Curnow and Paul Newman and Nick Carter of Akaysha Energy discuss the different roles battery storage plays in the energy market. 

Ashurst has also partnered with Renew Economy to deliver the first of our series of webinars titled "NEM Reforms: Who rules the market?" on 2 September 2021, which discusses the Energy Security Board's proposed reforms to the NEM. Click here to view the recorded webinar. 

Click here to see our latest Energy Alerts, as part of our Energy Alert Series.   

Authors: Paul Newman, Partner; Andre Dauwalder, Senior Associate and Jacklin Molla, Associate