Rule Change: Completed
Overview
On 13 September 2018 the AEMC made a final rule for the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to establish a register of distributed energy resources in the national electricity market, including small scale battery storage systems and rooftop solar.
The register will give network businesses and AEMO visibility of where distributed energy resources are connected to help in planning and operating the power system as it transforms.
Final determination
The final rule amends the National Electricity Rules to establish a process by which AEMO, network service providers and other interested stakeholders may obtain static data on distributed energy resources (DER) across the national electricity market.
The final rule:
- places an obligation on AEMO to establish, maintain and update a register of static data for DER devices in the national electricity market
- requires network service providers to request from their customers the specific DER generation information outlined by AEMO in guidelines (through the network connection process and deemed standard connection contract) and provide this to AEMO
- introduces a data sharing framework that obliges AEMO to share disaggregated data regarding the locational and technical characteristics of devices in the DER register with network businesses in relation to their network areas (including data that was not reported through their connection processes or contracts), subject to privacy laws and protected information provisions in the National Electricity Law
- places an obligation on AEMO to periodically report publicly relevant information from the DER register at an appropriate level of aggregation
- allows AEMO to provide DER register information to an emergency services agency if requested for the purposes of that agency’s response to an emergency or for planning in relation to emergency responses.
The new register must be in place by 1 December 2019. The transitional provisions, which will commence on 18 September 2018, include an obligation on AEMO to make and publish the first DER register information guidelines by 1 June 2019.
Background
On 5 October 2017 the AEMC received a rule change request from the COAG Energy Council to amend the National Electricity Rules and the National Energy Retail Rules.
The rule change request sought to improve the collection and sharing of information about small-scale behind the meter distributed energy resources in the NEM.
On 6 March 2018 the Commission published a consultation paper. We received 25 submissions which can be found below.
On 26 June 2018 the Commission published a draft rule determination and a draft rule. Submissions on the draft rule determination closed on 7 August 2018. We received 15 submissions which can also be found below.