As extreme weather events become more frequent, we need a clearer definition of energy service resilience to guide investment decisions and protect consumers from prolonged outages. This is essential to ensure the community has energy services which are resilient, while avoiding unnecessary costs, reflecting the needs and preferences of the community.
That’s why our response to the Australian Energy Regulator’s (AER) Network Resilience Guidelines consultation paper focuses on three key points:
- The need for a narrower and more practical definition of resilience, which is more clearly distinct from reliability definitions;
- basing resilience spending decisions on principles-based assessment frameworks and meaningful consumer engagement focussed on community values and the trade-offs they are willing to make, and;
- focusing on resilience measures that help communities manage and recover from prolonged outages caused by extreme weather.
What’s next?
The AER will use submission feedback to help inform its Network Resilience Guidelines, due for release in September. We are at the forefront of discussions on energy service resilience and will continue to work with community stakeholders, energy businesses and regulators to evolve an appropriate approach to resilience which protects the community, in a way which aligns with the community’s values.
