We are consulting on amending the following six documents to take into account the National Electricity Amendment (Regulated stand-alone power systems) Rule 2022 (Amending Rule):
- Regulatory Investment Test for Distribution Application Guidelines
- Connection Charge Guidelines
- Distribution Service Classification Guidelines
- Distribution Reliability Measures Guidelines
- Regulatory Investment Test for Distribution
- Expenditure Forecast Assessment Guideline
These documents are guidelines that assist distributors to deliver outcomes that are in the best interest of electricity customers.
The Amending Rule will allow distributor-led stand-alone power systems (SAPS) to become part of the national electricity system where it may be cheaper, safer and more reliable than connection to the grid.
We are amending our guidelines to enable the rule change. Our amendments will help all network customers receive the benefits of allowing SAPS to become part of the national electricity system:
- customers who are connected to SAPS will receive the same consumer protections as grid-connected customers
- all customers will benefit from lower network charges.
The documents are available on our website and we have marked up all of our proposed changes. Also available is an explanatory statement that describes what SAPS are and outlines our review process in more detail.
We invite interested parties to make written submissions to us regarding this explanatory statement and accompanying documents by the close of business, 30 June 2022.
Consultation
Consultation on the draft amendments to the guidelines is open until close of business, 30 June 2022. Feedback will be used to inform the final guidelines, due to be published 1 August 2022.
If providing a written submission, we prefer it be publicly available to facilitate informed and transparent consultation. We will treat written submissions as public documents unless otherwise requested.