The Federal Court has found that Pelican Point Power Limited (Pelican Point) breached the National Electricity Rules by failing to disclose to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) the full capacity of its Pelican Point Power Station that was available during heat wave conditions in February 2017.
In proceedings brought by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER), the Federal Court found that Pelican Point failed to comply with its legal obligation to disclose short term availability information to AEMO.
On 8 February 2017, South Australia experienced heat wave conditions which resulted in high customer demand and reduced generation capacity. In the late afternoon of that day, the power system in the region was not in a secure operating state for over 30 minutes, which required AEMO to declare an actual ‘Lack of Reserve Level 3’ event and direct an interruption of customer supply (also known as ‘load shedding’) in order to restore power system security.
However, the Court found that Pelican Point did not contravene the National Electricity Rules in relation to its obligation to submit medium term availability information to AEMO about its Pelican Point Power Station in South Australia.
A separate hearing on penalty will be held at a later date.