New gas laws, regulations and rules are now in place to deliver the AEMC’s reforms to pipeline capacity trading, following the passing of a legislative package by the South Australian parliament and energy minister last week.
The changes, based on recommendations in the AEMC’s east coast gas review and progressed by the COAG Energy Council’s gas market reform group, will make it easier and cheaper to move gas around the system and help keep gas and electricity prices as low as possible.
The reforms include:
- introducing new ways to trade unused pipeline capacity (known as ‘secondary’ trading). This includes a new auction process which makes it compulsory for unused capacity to be offered for sale in a day-ahead market.
- setting up a new electronic platform for secondary trading to make it easier for buyers and sellers to interact
- requiring better and more publicly-available information about pipeline trading contracts, including prices and conditions, so buyers and sellers can make more informed decisions
- standardising contracts for secondary trades to make it easier and faster for participants to understand and make deals.
To accompany these changes, the date for harmonising the start of the gas day in markets across the eastern seaboard has been brought forward, from 2021 to 2019. Different gas markets across the east coast currently operate with different gas day start times as a result of legacy pipeline arrangements. These differences impose a cost on the increasingly integrated system. From mid next year, the gas day in each market location will start at 6am Australian Eastern Standard Time.
Media: Prudence Anderson, Communication Director, 0404 821 935 or (02) 8296 7817