A crucial report into the future of the National Electricity Market (NEM) has been released today.
The ESB Post-2025 Market Design Consultation Paper by the Energy Security Board (ESB) outlines a comprehensive redesign of Australia’s energy market with seven market development initiatives.
ESB Independent Chair, Dr Kerry Schott AO said the initiatives consider almost all aspects of how electricity is generated and dispatched, how consumers can access the services they want and how investment can occur in the most efficient way to avoid unnecessary costs.
“It is clear that the rules and market frameworks need to evolve to keep up with the accelerating pace of change, which is leading to security and reliability challenges and less than ideal outcomes for consumers.”
Dr Schott said the rapid and continued uptake of grid scale renewables and distributed energy resources has transformed Australia’s energy system:
- Today, solar PV is installed on more than 2.2 million households, up from 100,000 10years ago
- In the last decade, more than 10GW of grid-scale renewables have been connected to the NEM, 5GW in the last three years.
Dr Schott said reforms are critical to ensure the NEM is fit for purpose for the future and can accommodate new and different needs of the electricity system, market participants and consumers.
“Some changes can be implemented now and others before and after 2025. This major reform is a change journey to and beyond 2025 – it is not a one ‘big bang’ reform process.”
“We are working towards delivering the results of this consultation and recommendations to energy ministers at the end of this year. It’s a big agenda but the scale of the challenges mean it is imperative that this package be considered holistically. No reform will be left behind.”
The release of the Post-2025 Market Design Consultation Paper follows a request from the (former) COAG Energy Council to develop market reforms to support the transition of the NEM and drive better consumer outcomes.
Developed in collaboration with the Australian Energy Market Commission, Australian Energy Regulator, Australian Energy Market Operator, these reforms are aimed at systemically modernising the market design and regulatory frameworks to meet the needs of the energy transition and unlock value for consumers from new energy and digital technologies, including from distributed energy resources.
For more information and to contribute visit https://esb-post2025-market-design.aemc.gov.au/ Submissions close on 19 October 2020.
