Market Review: Open
Overview
On 2 April 2026, the Reliability Panel published a draft Template for Compliance Programs. The Template provides plant owners and operators with useful guidance and suggested testing and monitoring methodologies to demonstrate ongoing compliance with their technical performance standards.
The Template helps to support compliance with technical standards which is fundamental to the safe, secure and reliable operation of the electricity system.
The draft Template:
- includes revised and new compliance tables to provide guidance to a wider range of plant types, including generators, loads, synchronous condensers, HVDC links and battery energy storage systems
- provides more detailed guidance on topics such as continuous plant monitoring, the impact of plant changes on compliance and the use of models to demonstrate compliance
- reflects changes to the technical requirements in the National Electricity Rules (NER), most notably by the Improving the NEM Access Standards – Package 1 2025 Rule.
The Panel is also consulting on two recommendations for potential rule changes that would improve the broader compliance framework by:
- allowing greater flexibility for the timing of the Panel’s review of the Template, to allow for the timing of future reviews to be better coordinated with future changes to the NER technical requirements
- expanding the scope of the Template’s guidance to allow the Template to provide useful guidance on other obligations that relate to performance standards.
Stakeholders who wish to provide a submission to the Panel should do so by Thursday 14 May 2026, to help inform and shape the Panel’s final Template for Compliance Programs.
The Commission has approved an extended timing for completion of this review by 27 August 2026. Registered Participants would be required to ensure their compliance programs are consistent with the Template within six months of the publication of the final revised Template.