Under the National Electricity Law (NEL) and the National Electricity Rules (NER) anyone who engages in an electricity distribution or transmission activity must either be:
- registered with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) as an electricity network service provider, or
- must gain an exemption from the requirement to be a registered network service provider from the AER.
The AER can issue exemptions to persons or classes of persons and impose conditions on these exemptions in accordance with the Network Exemptions Guideline.
This guideline sets out the processes for registering and applying for network exemptions, and outlines the various exemption classes, their eligibility criteria and exemption conditions. The guideline also details our policy considerations when making decisions on exemption applications and on exemption classes and conditions.
The Notice of final decision which explains the consultation process, key changes and rationale behind this version of the guideline can be found at Review of the AER exemptions framework for embedded networks.