The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued an authorisation allowing an expansion of the reserve contracting provisions of the National Electricity Code to enable more extensive generation and demand side involvement in reserve contracting.
Reserve contracting provisions are used when there is an inadequate supply of electricity in the market. The reserve contracting provisions allow the National Electricity Market Management Company to contract with generation capacity and customer demand that is not available in the market to ensure adequate levels of supply are attained. Without these changes NEMMCO would only be able to enter into reserve contracts with a certain class of generators.
"By allowing NEMMCO to contract reserve capacity with all generation classes and customers, the effectiveness of the reserve contracting provisions in addressing supply shortfalls is greatly improved", ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.
"These changes allow supply shortfalls to be addressed by customers reducing demand as well as by extra generation. This will increase NEMMCOs ability to ensure a reliable supply of electricity".