Electricity users will get paid to cut energy use under historic new market reform
Big energy users, such as farms, factories or commercial enterprises, will be able to get paid for taking demand out of the system. (ABC News)
Electricity consumers will be paid for reducing their power demands under a radical change to the market that will be introduced next year.
Key points:
- 'Wholesale demand response' will come into effect in October 2021, allowing large electricity users to be paid for reducing demand
- Big energy generators and retailers had wanted to delay the change, citing the COVID-19 crisis
- Some advocacy groups want to extend the scheme to households and small businesses
The historic rule change announced on Thursday will allow what's known as "wholesale demand response" — where the wholesale market can pay users for cutting electricity consumption, rather than paying electricity generators to increase supply, when the system is under strain.
The shift, which will begin in October 2021, has been adopted by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) despite opposition from big energy generators and retailers, who were using the COVID-19 crisis to pressure for delaying the rule changes.
The commission has described the change as "an important reform to the NEM (National Electricity Market)".
It argues it will reduce electricity prices for consumers and improve reliability on the network, by allowing demand response to compete with "peaking" electricity generators that typically receive very high prices for supplying additional electricity during times of heavy demand.
Under the change, large electricity users (such as big farms, factories and commercial enterprises) will be able to bid reductions in demand into the wholesale market and get paid for taking their demand out of the system.
Over time, demand response is expected to be extended to households and smaller businesses who sign up with companies that "sell" power reductions from thousands of customers into the market at times when wholesale prices are high.
However, the AEMC has baulked at extending the initiative to households and small businesses at this stage.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the new rules would lower prices and improve reliability on the electricity grid.
"This reform will help avoid spikes in electricity demand that can increase prices, and can cause unexpected blackouts," he said.
"This is a great opportunity to strengthen energy intensive industries, like smelters, by rewarding them for the role they play in making the grid affordable and reliable.
"The benefits of wholesale demand response will flow through to all households and businesses through lower electricity bills and improved network reliability.
"Lower electricity costs on small businesses and industry means Australians have more money to invest, expand and grow jobs — and this is particularly important as businesses recover from COVID-19."
Win for community and environmental groups
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has welcomed the change.
In a submission to the AEMC, the competition watchdog's chairman Rod Sims had argued that the historic change had the potential to "constrain the pricing of [electricity] generation businesses, limit the need for additional generation and lead to lower prices".
The Australian Energy Council, which represents the big energy retailers and generators, had wanted the changes delayed and to have the capacity to implement demand response limited to existing energy retailers, but this was strongly opposed by the ACCC.
The rule changes are a major victory for a coalition of community and environment groups that fought for the shift to demand response — the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, the Australia Institute and the Total Environment Centre.
These groups have welcomed the reform and the AEMC's decision to adopt the change in 2021, rather than delay the introduction to 2022 or beyond as requested by the big energy companies.
"Big energy users like factories and farms will be able to earn money by saving energy during heatwaves and at other times when electricity prices are high," the Australia Institute's energy lead Dan Cass said.
"This will push down prices for all consumers, improve reliability and help Australia safely retire our 20 remaining coal-fired power stations."
Head of energy policy at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre Craig Memery said it was "a critical reform that will bring much-needed benefits to consumers, and a key part of a secure, zero-carbon energy system".
However, these groups were disappointed that the change has been restricted to big electricity consumers rather than extended to all households and small businesses.
"We will continue to push for … the other 90 per cent of customers to be able to reduce their energy costs by participating in the demand response market," the Total Environment Centre's energy market advocate Mark Byrne said.
The Australian Energy Council had said it is "broadly supportive" of the new rule but took issue with the timetable set down for its implementation, "given the disruption currently being caused by COVID-19, and likely to continue for some time to come".
In a statement on Thursday, the AEMC said: "Under this mechanism, consumers would be able to actively participate in central [electricity] dispatch and be rewarded for the value they provide to the system.
"In addition, this mechanism would capture the benefits of greater demand side participation and share these benefits with all consumers.
"This final rule allows for new technologies, particularly those brought about by increased digitalisation, to be valued within the market framework."