Post: NEM Reform hits first ‘go-live’ milestone

NEM Reform hits first ‘go-live’ milestone

Australia has reached a significant milestone in the National Electricity Market (NEM) Reform Program, designed to deliver a number of the Energy Security Board’s (ESB) Post 2025 and other energy market reforms.

The Australia Electricity Market Operator (AEMO) has confirmed that from 31 March aggregators of small generating units (<5MW) can register to participate in Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS) markets, increasing competition and resource availability.

Under the new system, after AEMO approves an Small Generation Aggregator (SGA) registration application, the SGA is given access to NEM market systems. The SGA classifies the small generating units it is financially responsible for as:

• Market generating units through AEMO’s Market Settlement and Transfer Solution (MSATS) system.
• Ancillary Service Loads (ASLs) to provide market ancillary services through AEMO’s Portfolio Management System.

AEMO pays the SGA:

• The electricity spot price for the electricity produced by its market generating units.
• The FCAS market price for the FCAS enabled on the ancillary service units, if the SGA also provides market ancillary services.

AEMO Executive General Manager Reform Delivery, Violette Mouchaileh said:

“Small electricity generation and storage devices will play a major role in supplying not only electricity, but also essential services needed to run a secure power system.

“Today’s milestone will allow aggregators of small generating and storage units to register and provide contingency ancillary services needed to help restore frequency in the power system after major events and enable AEMO to manage the power system safely, securely and reliably. The benefits of this change include giving participants access to additional value streams and promoting competition in the contingency ancillary services markets.”

Sales Director Australia at GridBeyond Lisa Balk said: