The AEMC today published an issues and approach paper to facilitate public comment on:

• the systemic issues arising from the 28 September 2016 South Australian black system event
• the Commission’s approach to conducting its review into the event as required by COAG Energy Council. 

COAG Energy Council’s terms of reference for the review require the Commission to draw upon AEMO and AER’s findings into the black system event. With the publication of both the AEMO incident report (in March 2017) and the AER pre- and post-event compliance report (in December 2018) the Commission has commenced its review as required by COAG Energy Council.

The issues and approach paper addresses systemic issues arising from the South Australian black system event including:

• Contingency classification and the pre-event management of risks to power system security
• System restoration following the black system event
• Market suspension, and
• Arrangements to enhance power system resilience to high impact low probability events.  

The AER has not yet published a compliance report or issued any findings related to the black system event period itself (taken to be the 87 seconds between the loss of transmission lines in the mid-north of South Australia and the black system). The Commission will defer consideration of the black system event period itself, until such time as the AER has publically reported or otherwise issued findings on compliance during this period. 

The Commission is intending to publish a draft review report in mid-September and a final review report in December. The Commission invites comments from interested parties in response to this approach paper by Friday 24 May 2019.

Media: Prudence Anderson, Communication Director, 0404 821 935 or DL (02) 8296 7817.