The Electricity Rules requires registered participants to follow dispatch instructions issued by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) unless to do so would, in the participant’s reasonable opinion, be a hazard to public safety or materially risk damaging equipment.
The AER issued an infringement notice to Origin Energy Uranquinty Power Pty Ltd (OEU), a wholly owned subsidiary of Origin Energy Limited (Origin Energy), because it had reason to believe that OEU failed to follow dispatch instructions from AEMO for its four generators at the Uranquinty Power Station in NSW during a dispatch interval on 23 September 2015. OEU paid the $20 000 infringement penalty on 26 February 2016.