On 29 October 2015 the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) made a final rule that gives the Australian Energy Regulator responsibility for producing, maintaining and updating a guideline of common definitions of distribution reliability measures.

The final rule is likely to contribute to the achievement of the national electricity objective by promoting consistency and transparency in the specification and reporting of distribution reliability measures. This is likely to lead to more effective benchmarking and incentive schemes which will better enable the AER to determine revenue allowances for DNSPs, and hence to better consider price and reliability outcomes for consumers.

Background

On 25 May 2015 the COAG Energy Council submitted a rule change request to the AEMC seeking to give the AER responsibility for producing, maintaining and updating a guideline of common definitions of distribution network reliability measures. The rule change request followed release of the AEMC’s final report, Review of Distribution Reliability Measures on 5 September 2014, which recommended a common set of distribution reliability measures be developed.