The South Australian Government requests a rule change to allow it to derogate from the national electricity rules, and bring back into service two mothballed diesel generators.
The JEC made a submission opposing the rule change proposal on the basis that it risks distorting the National Electricity Market to the detriment of consumers. Allowing the derogation, will be an interference in the wholesale market with the possibility that more expensive off market options, with higher emissions, are used to meet a forecast reliability gap.
We argued, if any derogation is to be permitted, any rule change allowing the derogation should be narrow to minimise distortion of the market and avoid unnecessarily prolonging fossil fuel generation.
This request appears to be part of an emerging trend whereby governments are seeking to maintain online fossil fuel generation beyond the life envisaged by commercial operators.
