On 28 September 2016 South Australia experienced a black system event. In December 2016 the COAG Energy Council issued terms of reference to the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) to build upon work conducted by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and the AER to investigate any systemic issues that may have contributed to the black system event.
Issues and approach paper
On 18 April 2019, the AEMC published an issues and approach paper relating to the South Australian black system review, with a draft report due in September 2019 ahead of the final report due in December 2019. The issues and approach paper addresses systemic issues arising from the South Australian black system event including:
- Contingency classification and the pre-event management of risks to power system security
- System restoration following the black system event
- Market suspension, and
- Arrangements to enhance power system resilience to high impact low probability events.
The AER provided a combined submission to the issues and approach paper on 24 May 2019.
AER submission - AEMC review of the black system event in South Australia - 24 May 2019
Discussion paper
On 15 August 2019 AEMC staff launched a discussion paper on how to better manage security risks in a changing power system, including discussion on providing resilience to high impact, low probability events. The AEMC convened a technical working group on 16 August to facilitate discussion on policy options under development, which was attended by the AER.
The AER provided a submission to the discussion paper on 5 September 2019.
More information
More information on the South Australian black system review.