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Update from COAG Energy Council meeting

The COAG Energy Council met today for their 21st meeting. On the agenda was AEMO addressing their work in preparing the grid for summer, bringing down electricity costs and ensuring long term grid reliability and security.

AEMO highlighted the priority of work being undertaken to ensure that there is enough dispatchable generation in the NEM and integration of renewable and distributed energy resources. The Ministers agreed to a work program for the ESB to develop advice on a long term, fit for purpose market framework to support reliability that could apply from the mid-2020s. There was very little detail on this framework, however Edge will look to discover more.

Reliability

Ministers agreed to the final draft bill which gives effect to the Retail Reliability Obligation. The final package of rules will be brought to Council for approval in the first half of 2019, with a target commencement date of 1 July 2019.

Transmission upgrades

Ministers agreed on an approach to deliver the Group 1 transmission network projects. Group 1 projects include:

• Increasing transfer capacity between New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria by 170-460 MW;

• Reducing congestion for existing and committed renewable energy developments in western and north-western Victoria; and

• Remedy system strength in South Australia.

In the Base plan, these initial transmission developments for Group 1 are costed at between $450 million and $650 million, and the assets will continue to benefit consumers well beyond the 20-year ISP forecast period. More cost benefit analysis work is to be conducted on Group 2 and 3 projects.

If you have any questions regarding this article or the electricity market in general, call Edge on 07 3905 9220 or 1800 334 336.