Customers could benefit from a more reliable, secure and cost-effective energy system with draft recommendations released to ensure consumer energy resources (CER) such as solar PV, batteries and electric vehicles comply with mandatory technical standards.
The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) today released a report outlining 13 draft recommendations as part of a self-initiated review to investigate compliance of devices with the Australian Standard ‘AS4777.2:2020’.
As households and businesses continue to buy and install new CER technologies at record rates, the technical standards that define how the devices interact with each other, and the power system, are becoming increasingly important.
For example, securing the stability of the grid with specific inverter based technical standards helps to reduce cases of ‘tripping’, which can mean efficiencies, cost savings and greater certainty for both market participants and consumers.
Key recommendations include setting out actions for:
- manufacturers and suppliers of CER devices – such as the removal of historical CER technical standards from settings menus of new devices, and remote updates to devices where possible to remedy non-compliance;
- installers – such as making CER tech standards mandatory for New Energy Tech Consumer Code (NETCC) Approved sellers as well as funded training in CER tech standards for installers;
- market participants – an accelerated rollout of smart meter devices with improved access to data, and;
- jurisdictions – to consider establishing programs to subsidise consumers with the re-configuration of non-compliant devices.
Approximately one-third of new CER devices were compliant with AS4777.2:2020 upon its introduction in December 2021, but AEMC findings suggest that with immediate action the National Electricity Market (NEM) can expect to see half, to almost all new devices compliant with CER technical standards.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) identified that immediate incremental improvements are required to address system security challenges in the timeframe required and would help to address the issues seen with current compliance rates.
Submissions in response to the AEMC’s draft report are being accepted until 5.00pm AEST 25 May 2023.
More information about the draft report can be found on the project page.
Further information on AEMO’s assessment of compliance can be found in AEMO’s Compliance of DER with Technical Settings report.
Media: Jessica Rich | 0459 918 964 | media@aemc.gov.au.