On 17 December 2020 the AEMC made a final rule to clarify AEMO's existing maintenance coordination function in the Victorian Declared Wholesale Gas Market (DWGM) and remove minor inconsistencies within the National Gas Rules (NGR). The final rules come into effect on 22 April 2021.

The final rule

The final rule makes amendments to rules 200, 324 and 326 of the NGR in order to:

• Introduce a consistent standard for system security across the Victorian DWGM when evaluating potential threats to security posed by maintenance activities.
• Incorporate producers in the maintenance planning coordination process that currently only applies to storage providers and service providers by including them in the new definition of 'DWGM facility operator'.
• Remove differences in definitions in the NGR, simplifying the rules and improving consistency. 

The Commission is satisfied that the final rule will, or is likely to, contribute to the achievement of the national gas objective by:

• Clarifying and enhancing the application of AEMO's maintenance coordination functions, facilitating the more efficient operation of maintenance planning in the Victorian DWGM and thereby improving the safe, reliable and secure supply of natural gas.
• Incorporating producers into the maintenance coordination processes that currently apply to other asset operators in the DWGM, removing the need for AEMO to issue separate maintenance directions to producers under the NGL. This will enable better information sharing between asset operators and AEMO to the benefit of a more responsive system. 
• Removing differences in definitions in the NGR, simplifying the rules and improving consistency. More clear and consistent rules provide a greater degree of certainty and are easier to interpret and apply.

Consultation process

On 22 October 2020 the AEMC published a consultation paper. We received four submissions, which can be found below.

The Commission adopted an expedited process in assessing this rule change request as it considered that the proposed rules were unlikely to have a significant impact on the gas market or the regulation of pipeline services. No objections to using this process were received.

Background

On 30 June 2020 the AEMC received a rule change request from AEMO that identified several changes that could be made to improve the coordination of maintenance planning in the DWGM.