Rule Change: Open
Overview
On 16 October 2025, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) published a directions paper setting out three different approaches to improve distribution planning in the National Electricity Rules (NER).
We consider that the existing distribution annual planning process is unable to meet the emerging challenges in distribution network planning. The uptake of consumer energy resources (CER) is both:
- making distribution planning more complex; and
- increasing the need and demand for low-voltage network data.
Successfully addressing these challenges will improve transparency for distribution network users, including consumers. They will then be better placed to make informed investments in CER.
We are now seeking feedback from stakeholders on our proposed options to address these challenges. Your feedback will inform the draft policy positions we adopt for our draft determination and draft rule.
Stakeholders can provide a written submission to the directions paper by 13 November 2025. We are also holding a virtual public forum for stakeholders to ask questions in response to the directions paper. The forum will be held on Thursday, 5 November 2025.
You can find further information and register your attendance on the event page.
We have extended the rule change process to facilitate greater interrogation of the issues and proposed solution
The Commission considers that additional consultation will be required for this rule change process due to the complex issues that Energy Consumers Australian (ECA) has raised in its rule change request. ECA’s proposed solution would also significantly change the current distribution planning process. For this reason, we have extended the time allowed for the draft determination by six months to allow further investigation into the problems ECA has identified and assess solutions. We are now required to publish the draft determination by 19 March 2026.
Context
ECA submitted a rule change request on 22 January 2025 seeking to reform the current distribution annual planning process. ECA has suggested that the current planning process does not result in:
- proactive engagement with communities
- adequate consideration of the uptake of CER
- sufficient incorporation of outcomes of the Integrated System Plan (ISP)
- sufficient data to fully inform the ISP process.
And that without reform, these issues could lead to:
- active communities not contributing to the planning of the local network
- lower utilisation of network assets
- curtailment of energy generated from CER.
Under the proposed rule change, the existing distribution annual planning process in Chapter 5 of the NER would be replaced with the proposed IDSP process. This would require each DNSP to release a comprehensive planning report every two years, alternating with the ISP.
DNSPs would also be required to publish a network data and insights roadmap that outlines how they will meet the requirements of the new IDSP process. This would include the more frequent publication of certain data and broader consultation with key stakeholders, such as consumers and communities.
We published a consultation paper seeking stakeholder feedback on the rule change on 26 June 2025. We received 30 submissions from stakeholders and additional feedback during a public forum held on 14 August 2025.