The Electricity Rules requires registered participants to follow dispatch instructions issued by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) unless to do so would, in the participant’s reasonable opinion, be a hazard to public safety or materially risk damaging equipment.
The AER issued two infringement notices to ERM Power Retail Pty Ltd (ERM Power), the owner and operator of Oakey Power Station in Queensland, because it had reason to believe that ERM Power failed to follow dispatch instructions for a generating unit at Oakey Power Station during a dispatch interval on 23 March 2015 and two dispatch intervals on 21 September 2015. ERM Power paid the total $40 000 infringement penalties on 9 May 2016.