On 11 December 2012 the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) published a decision report outlining the reasons for not exercising the Last Resort Planning Power in 2012. The National Electricity Rules (NER) contain a requirement for the AEMC to report annually on whether planning by the transmission network service providers had responded to inter-regional network congestion as identified in national planning documents. The 2012 review finds that interconnector capacity received an appropriate level of assessment and there was no need for the AEMC to exercise its last resort planning power in the year under review.

To inform the AEMC’s decision a technical report by the consultants Marsden Jacob Associates and SW Advisory was commissioned. This report supports the AEMC’s conclusion that current planning processes are providing sufficient attention to interconnector capacities in the NEM.

The NER allocate the Last Resort Planning Power to the AEMC. This is the power to direct a Registered Participant to undertake a Regulatory Investment Test for Transmission (RIT-T) to determine if a transmission project is warranted. The AEMC is to exercise this power if it considers that the Jurisdictional Planning Bodies (JPBs) are not giving due regard to a constraint on inter-regional flows. Each year the AEMC considers the documented planning actions of the JPBs and the National Transmission Planner and reports on its reasons for either issuing a direction or not doing so. The AEMC is yet to exercise its power to issue a direction.