PIAC lodged a submission to the Australian Energy Market Commission on the Reinstatement of the long-notice Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader (RERT) rule change. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) can procure services under the RERT mechanism to insure against forecast shortfalls in supply. Currently it can only do this for up to 10 weeks ahead, which AEMO considers is too short and can be a barrier to some potential providers such as demand response. The rule proposes to extend this lead time to nine months.
PIAC supports the rule change to the extent that it will allow AEMO to access a broader and more robust set of potential providers. This will help ensure that, if AEMO chooses to exercise the RERT, it has the best opportunity to meet any reliability shortfall and at least cost.
