On 21 September 2020, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) received a rule change request from Dr Kerry Schott AO. The request seeks to introduce new governance arrangements for setting technical standards for distributed energy resources (DER) in the national electricity market (NEM).

AGL made a formal submission in response to the AEMC’s rule change consultation, a copy of which is available here. 

AGL supports the strategic intent of the Energy Security Board’s (ESB) rule change request to improve governance arrangements for DER technical standards, given the current inability to implement consistent technical standards across the NEM and the need for a fast, flexible, and transparent standards setting process.

We acknowledge the important role that Standards Australia plays as an independent body skilled in standards setting.

Nevertheless, as we observed in our response to the ESB’s 2020 review of governance arrangements for DER technical standards and to Standards Australia’s own governance review in 2017, improvements to the technical standards governance arrangements are required to ensure standards development remains technical, customer-focused and evidence-based.

AGL therefore supports establishing a DER Standards Governance Committee under the NER, provided its functions and powers complement and enhance the current standards making process and do not introduce additional complexity or duplication.

We elaborate a range of recommendations to the AEMC’s rule change determination in our formal submission.