Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC)

The Reliability Panel is seeking stakeholder feedback on draft recommendations for the reliability standard and market price settings, following the release of a draft report. Have your say: https://lnkd.in/giHv4WzA

Anna Collyer, Chair of the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC), marking our 20th year by acknowledging AEMC's ongoing opportunity to bring the sector together on the big challenges/reforms:    "The AEMC will continue to foster the diverse and pragmatic partnerships capable of turning competing interests into common purpose. We will continue to cast the net wide to find and refine the ideas and pathways that will usher in a truly consumer-focused net zero energy system."   Full speech: https://lnkd.in/ggsYUy4q

Following the recent release of "The right to power - keeping First Nations communities on prepayment connected" report, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) was joined this week by Dr Thomas Longden from Western Sydney University as part of our ongoing two-way conversation with the broader academic community and consistent with our commitment to reconciliation. Dr Longden discussed the first national investigation into the experiences of First Nations’ communities accessing power through prepayment supply arrangements. Drawing from the report, Dr Longden highlighted that: ⚡ more than 15,000 First Nations’ households or 65,000 people access electricity via prepayment supply arrangements ⚡ home power meters must be topped up with credit to power the home - when credit runs out, the home is disconnected, usually without warning, cutting off access to lights, power, refrigeration and cooling ⚡prepayment is not very common across Australia, but it is the default or mandated supply arrangement across the WA’s Kimberly region, parts of the NT, Far North Qld and the Torres Strait, and a number of communities in SA ⚡the research conducted by Original Power and the First Nations Clean Energy Network in partnership with Western Sydney University, Tangentyere Council Aboriginal Corporation, Nulungu Research Institute, Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation and funded by Energy Consumers Australia, shows that First Nations’ energy customers using prepayment are among the world’s most energy insecure, experiencing an average of 49 disconnections a year - or nearly one a week. Key recommendations from the report include measures to assist vulnerable people during extreme temperatures and other emergency events, ensuring that systems are in place to ensure that prepayment meter customers are afforded the same consumer protections as non-prepayment meter customers, and removing barriers that exclude prepayment consumers from the full benefits of consumer energy resources.    Full report: https://lnkd.in/g6thJeSQ More: https://lnkd.in/g5ey7C5p

We are delighted to welcome Victoria Mollard, Executive GM, Economics & System Security, Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC), as a speaker at our upcoming conference on Transmission Infrastructure Australia, taking place on February 11-12, 2026, in Sydney. To know more or to register, visit: https://lnkd.in/d9dWKNnt or contact Ishan Arora at ishan.arora@globaltransmission.info #TIAUS2026 #TransmissionInfrastructure #PowerTransmission #EnergyTransition #RenewablesIntegration #SydneyEvents

Last week, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) hosted an in-person meeting with the Reliability Panel (Panel). The Panel met to discuss two important items on its ongoing work program, including its reliability standard and settings review, as well as its review of the system restart standard.   Panel Chair, Commissioner Rainer Korte, said, "Both these reviews are crucial to maintaining system reliability and security as Australia integrates more renewable energy into the national electricity grid. We appreciate and thank the members of the Panel for their contributions and expertise at this critical time for Australia's energy transition”.    Below - Reliability Panel and Panel Secretariat – Neythirun Sivanesan, Jacqueline Price, Stewart Bell, Ken Harper, Sally McMahon (Acting Chair), Rainer Korte (Chair), Damien Sanford, Joel Gilmore, Mark Vincent, Craig Memery GAICD, Rachele Williams, Suzanne Falvi, Victoria Mollard and Melissa Perrow (apology).

At the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) we hosted Dr Mike Roberts, Dr Anna Bruce and Dr Chuka Madumelu from UNSW who spoke about the work that UNSW SPREE is doing in the consumer energy resource (CER) space to develop a free, independent, and non-commercial solar analytics tool with the APVI - Australian PV Institute and supported by the Australian Government.   With over 40% of Australian houses now with rooftop solar, and 1,000 battery energy storage systems being installed behind the meter each week the SunSPOT tool (sunspot.org.au) has been developed to help thousands of households and businesses make better investment decisions about rooftop solar (and, to a limited extent, batteries) by providing free, accurate, data-driven estimates of financial outcomes, tailored to their individual property characteristics and energy use including rooftop solar size recommendations, savings estimates and financial payback projections.   We also heard how future plans for SunSPOT include allowing users to assess the impacts of future electrified loads on the benefits of solar and battery investments, enabling comparison of a wider range of tariff choices, and enhancing the battery functionality to model the benefits of VPP participation, with future plans to develop the tool to help consumers chart their own cost-effective electrification journey.   APVI's SunSPOT and Council Solar Installation Dashboards.   Below (from left) - our guests together with UNSW SPREE alumni now working at the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC): Dr Chuka Madumelu, Dr Mike Roberts, Marcel Lima, Annabelle Evans, Dr Anna Bruce, Emily Banks

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has proposed new rules that would: ⚡ establish a national framework to manage customers who want to stop gas supply to their property, and ⚡ protect consumer interests by managing the associated costs.   Submissions close 11 December 2025 - have your say: https://bit.ly/4hFnebk

As part of its commitment to strengthening demand-side participation in the national electricity market (NEM), the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has released a final report recommending that the wholesale demand response mechanism (WDRM) should continue operating in the NEM. The WDRM allows large electricity users to be paid for reducing their consumption when the grid is under stress – for example, a factory temporarily switching off equipment during peak demand periods. Anna Collyer, Chair of the AEMC said the decision recognises the WDRM's ongoing role in Australia's evolving energy market. "The WDRM enables some electricity users to effectively incorporate their demand response participation into market outcomes, which benefits all electricity consumers," Ms Collyer said. More: https://bit.ly/3JkrLmv

Can Australia's grid power the data centre boom without compromising climate goals? Our Chair Anna Collyer joined industry leaders at the #AFREnergyClimateSummit to explore this critical question. Key insights from the panel: ⚡ Manageable scale: While individual data centres could require up to 1 gigawatt of capacity, this is achievable within existing system parameters. NSW peak demand sits around 14 gigawatts, occurring only on rare days. ⚡ Game-changing flexibility: Data centres offer unique demand response capabilities - operating as "batteries for the grid" with hundreds of megawatts of flexibility while maintaining mission-critical services through backup generation. This is fundamentally different from traditional industrial loads. ⚡ Collaborative approach: The AEMC is establishing a technical working group with data centre operators to ensure connection settings balance system stability with the specific needs of these facilities. ⚡ International learnings: Overseas experience provides valuable lessons, including innovative models that pair data centre growth with broader energy efficiency programs. The panel explored how this represents more than just new load - it's an opportunity. Data centres can make long-term commitments that underwrite new generation investment, potentially accelerating Australia's energy transition.   As Anna noted: "We want to ensure we can welcome data centres into the system, but in a way that doesn't impose unnecessary costs and risks on other customers. It's a shared system with many different types of customers."   Australia is at an early stage in data centre evolution - the right time to get regulatory frameworks right.   Panel: Anna Collyer (AEMC Chair), Craig Scroggie (NEXTDC CEO), David Alonso (Deloitte National AI Market Lead), Mark Collette (EnergyAustralia MD). Moderated by Anthony Macdonald, The Australian Financial Review.

"The biggest challenge in the next 10 years from a system perspective is to decarbonise our electricity system while maintaining reliability and doing it at the lowest cost." Commissioner Tim Jordan at the Citi Australia & New Zealand Investment Conference on panel with Gary Brown, CFO at AGL, Jenny Ping, Head of European Equity Research at Citi, and hosted by Tom Wallington, Equity Analyst at Citi Australia & New Zealand.   The panel discussion touched on some challenges and opportunities ahead.   Challenges: ⚡ To keep evolving the market frameworks for the wholesale electricity market, for networks, for gas, and for retail, ensuring the frameworks are in place to deliver clean and reliable power at the lowest cost. ⚡ Speed is essential - we need to sustain and build on the last decade of hard work. Opportunities: ⚡ To build a system that delivers clean, reliable electricity at the lowest cost in order to set the economy up for low-carbon transport, low-carbon buildings, and low-carbon industries. ⚡ Increased EV uptake, and a future where consumers are likely to spend less on energy overall, taking into account lower spend on petrol and gas and the higher efficiency of electric appliances and EVs.