The Australian Energy Regulator has launched a range of new electricity compliance initiatives designed to investigate and address issues in the wholesale market.
In its latest ‘Quarterly Compliance Report’, the AER sets out its monitoring and enforcement activities in wholesale electricity and gas markets. These activities are aimed delivering efficient market outcomes on behalf of consumers. As part of this report, the AER sets out new projects focussed on identifying longer-term, cross-industry issues that may warrant further investigation and potential enforcement action.
“Today we shine our “compliance spotlight” on longer-term issues in wholesale markets. By tackling problems early and enforcing compliance, the AER is promoting a culture across industry which delivers value for money for consumers and keeps the lights on,” AER Chairman Andrew Reeves said.
These new strategic compliance initiatives will assess:
- Whether businesses that are paid to maintain the balance between supply and demand through the ancillary service markets are actually delivering these services;
- The quality of metering data provided by energy businesses to the market operator, AEMO, with an additional focus on ensuring that these businesses test and upgrade consumers’ meters as required;
- Trends in the performance of network businesses and generators in responding to supply incidents/disruptions, which is vital for maintaining system security; and
- The accuracy of information provided by generators on their future availability, which is critical to ensure there is sufficient generation capacity in coming years as well as helping with shorter-term outage planning.