Under the ‘Power of Choice’ rule changes, metering contestability commenced in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia on 1 December 2017.
A key change under the new rules is the implementation of the role of Metering Coordinator. The Metering Coordinator takes on the role that was performed by the ‘Responsible Person’.
Financially Responsible Market Participants are required to appoint a Metering Coordinator for all of their connection points, with large customers having the option of appointing their own Metering Coordinator. These appointments were required to be in place from 1 December 2017.
Participants in jurisdictions where the new rules apply should by now have compliant Metering Coordinator arrangements in place and should have ensured that the Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) market settlement and transfer solution has been updated to reflect those arrangements.
We will be requesting Power of Choice related compliance reports from AEMO to ensure that full compliance has been achieved by 30 March 2018, and will consider action against any Financially Responsible Market Participant which has not achieved full compliance by that date.
While Victoria is not implementing meter contestability at this point, some aspects of the new rules will apply to retailers servicing on-market embedded network customers in Victoria. Retailers servicing on-market embedded network customers in Victoria are required to appoint a competitive Metering Coordinator for these customers by no later than 1 December 2018.