On 13 April 2023, the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) released draft legislation and a consultation paper on the proposed reforms to the Australian Energy Regulator Wholesale Market Monitoring and Reporting Framework.
These reforms are imperative for the AER to effectively monitor and proactively identify challenges in the energy market. The AER is currently limited in its ability to assess competition in the wholesale energy markets due to:
- restrictions around obtaining and using information
- a lack of visibility over electricity contract markets
- the lack of a comprehensive gas market monitoring role.
The proposed changes to the National Electricity Law (NEL) and National Gas Law (NGL) aim to:
- Remove provisions that currently limit the AER’s ability to effectively fulfil its electricity wholesale market monitoring function.
- Empower the AER to monitor contract markets.
- Create an explicit wholesale market monitoring function for gas.
- Create additional requirements for the AER in connection with its extended wholesale market monitoring powers.
The AER made a submission to the consultation paper on 9 May 2023.
More information
More information can be found on the DEECCW website.