Notice: The coal market price emergency has ended as of 30 June 2024.
Declaration of the emergency
On 22 December 2022, the NSW Premier, under the Energy and Utilities Administration Act 1987 (NSW), declared a coal market price emergency from 22 December 2022 to 30 June 2024.
This enabled the government to impose price caps on coal used in the NSW power sector.
The NSW Minister for Energy had powers to give directions to NSW coal-fired power stations and coal suppliers to respond to the emergency.
The coal market price emergency has now ended.
Records of the last version of the directions and amendments can be found here:
View the 12 December 2023 Directions
View the 18 December 2023 amendment to the Directions
View the 10 April 2024 amendment to the Directions
The AER's appointment as regulator
On 13 February 2023, the NSW Minister for Energy formally appointed the AER as the regulator to monitor compliance with and enforcement of the directions.
Our role was to ensure NSW coal suppliers and power stations complied with the directions and to enable reporting on the impacts of the market interventions.
To assist them in this, we published 2 guidance notes and a set of frequently asked questions.
Price cap review process
During the coal market price emergency, the directions allowed coal suppliers to apply to the NSW Minister for Energy for a higher price cap if their production costs with a fair margin exceed the directed price cap.
Applications to the NSW Minister were required to be approved by the AER.
In April 2023, we published a guidance note describing our assessment approach for production costs and fair margins. The guideline also included the form that coal suppliers must use when submitting their application to the NSW Minister.
