The JEC made a submission to the Australian Energy Market Commission’s draft report for their review of the Wholesale Demand Response Mechanism (WDRM).
We thanked the Commission for their confirmation that the WDRM enables offers for consumers beyond those associated with other demand flexibility mechanisms, in Consumer Energy Resources Benefits and the Integrating Price Responsive Resources reforms.
However, we disagreed with their decision not to recommend expanding the mechanism to small customers and households.
Even more than disagreeing with the decision, we argued that the Commission has failed to adequately assess the proposal. They reject it on the basis of a metric unrelated to the long term interest of consumers, in the increased cost and complexity that would fall on the operator and on retailers, and explicitly decide against completing a cost-benefit analysis of the change from the perspective of consumers. This, we argue, is unacceptable and does not fulfil the standards the AEMC sets for itself.
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