On 23 April 2026, the Reliability Panel (The Panel) published a final report for the 2026 Reliability Standard and Settings Review (2026 RSSR). Following an extensive period of analysis, modelling and consultation, the Panel has made recommendations regarding the reliability standard and market price settings to apply from 1 July 2028 to 30 June 2032.

The Panel’s role is to recommend a reliability standard and associated market price settings that signal investment in an appropriate mix of generation, storage, interconnection and demand response, balanced with the level of reliability consumers value.

In developing its recommendations, the Panel has undertaken detailed economic modelling, engaged extensively with stakeholders through multiple rounds of consultation, and sought independent quality assurance of the modelling from Intelligent Energy Systems (IES). IES concluded that the Panel’s modelling is robust and reliable, and provides a sound basis for determining the efficient level of the reliability standard and the associated market price settings.

In the final report, for the period of 1 July 2028 to 30 June 2032, the Panel has made the following recommendations:

• We recommend the reliability standard be updated to 0.003 per cent unserved energy (USE) for the review period (99.997 per cent reliability).
• We recommend retaining the market price cap at $22,800 (2022 dollars) and cumulative price threshold at $2,325,600 (2022 dollars).
• We recommend retaining the market floor price at -$1,000/MWh and that the Commission consider the recommendation that the market automatically clear at the MFP during Minimum System Load level 3 (MSL3) conditions,  
• We recommend retaining the administered price cap and administered floor price at $600/MWh and -$600/MWh, respectively.

The Panel’s final recommendation is that the long-term interests of customers are best promoted by a reliability standard of 0.003% USE

The review highlighted that the reliability standard has become less aligned with observed outcomes and consumer experience, which is a key reason why the Panel recommends evolving the reliability standard rather than further tightening the market price settings.

The change to the reliability level (from 99.998 per cent) is driven by a reduction in the value of customer reliability, an increase in the costs of new generation capacity and the size and duration of modelled USE events.

The recommended standard will have minimal day-to-day impacts on the reliability outcomes consumers experience, increasing the planned long-term target from an average of 10 minutes, to 16 minutes of unserved energy per year, while avoiding increases in costs required to meet the current standard of 0.002 per cent USE (99.998 per cent reliability). In the current cost-of-living environment, the Panel considers it particularly important to avoid increases in market price settings that would raise consumer bills without delivering commensurate benefits.

Importantly, in real time, the system will continue to operate at very high levels of reliability, supported by a range of out‑of‑market and jurisdictional tools. These measures are intended to complement, rather than replace, the market‑based reliability framework.

The Panel acknowledges recent geopolitical developments affecting global commodity markets. While the modelling was completed prior to the latest period of volatility, the Panel is confident that both the modelling methodology and results are robust for the relevant review period and not materially affected by current movements in international gas and fuel markets.

The Panel has made several other final recommendations

In its final report, the Panel recommends:  

• no changes to the MPC and CPT as the current settings strike an appropriate balance between supporting critical investment and the reliability customers ultimately experience
• retaining the market floor price (MFP) at -$1,000/MWh as our  
• analysis indicates this level adequately allows the market to clear excess supply  
• that the market automatically clears at the MFP during Minimum System Load level 3 (MSL3) conditions, as such a trigger would transparently reflect system needs and may minimise the need for AEMO intervention
• retaining the current form of the cumulative price threshold as it serves the best interests of consumers by simply effectively and transparently accumulating prices  
• retaining the administered price cap and administered floor price at $600/MWh and -$600/MWh as they maintain the intended price signals while encouraging continued participation during periods of extended high prices.