On 15 October 2009 the AEMC made the National Electricity Amendment (Improved RERT Flexibility and Short-notice Reserve Contracts) Rule 2009 No.19. Under the transitional arrangements for this Rule, the Reliability Panel was required to consult on and publish revised RERT Guidelines by 30 June 2010. 

On 16 June 2010, the Reliability Panel published the Final Report for this review. Following consultation, the Panel has decided not to make any change to the interim amended RERT Guidelines. These Guidelines now form the current RERT Guidelines.

Background

In March 2009, the Reliability Panel began a  Review of the Operational Arrangements for the Reliability Standards. As part of this Review, the Panel considered the need and possible design of a short-notice version of the Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader (RERT) that could be used in a critical emergency. In August 2009, as part of this process, the Panel submitted a rule change proposal to the AEMC to allow AEMO to:

• contract for reserve in the long, medium and short-notice timeframes;
• negotiate reserve contracts at any time (allowing AEMO to form a RERT panel); and
• use contracted reserves for system security events where practicable.

The AEMC agreed with the intent of the rule change proposal and made the National Electricity Amendment (Improved RERT Flexibility and Short-notice Reserve Contracts)Rule 2009 No.19.

As a transitional measure, under clause 11.31.3 of the Rules, the Panel published interim amendments to the RERT Guidelines. This review undertook consultation on these revised RERT Guidelines in accordance with the Rules.  The revised RERT Guidelines were required to be published by 30 June 2010.

This consultation was in addition to that required under clause 3.20.9 of the Rules which requires the Panel to undertake a separate review of the RERT arrangements.  This is due to be commenced by the Panel in the second half of 2010.

On 1 March 2010, the Panel published its Consultation on the amended RERT Guidelines Draft Report for stakeholder consultation. Stakeholder submissions were due by Friday, 9 April 2010.

The Reliability Panel published notice of a public meeting to be held on 6 May 2010, however the public meeting was cancelled as there were no registered attendees following the closing date of 30 April 2010.