Overview

Draft
Stakeholder forum
Final decision
Type
Guidelines
Sector
Electricity
Segment
Retail
Wholesale
Region
Australian Capital Territory
New South Wales
Queensland
South Australia
Tasmania
Victoria
Status
Current
Date initiated
Effective date
Date completed
Categories
Retailer Reliability Obligation
Contacts
AER General Inquiries

The AER has concluded its consultation on the revised interim Contracts and Firmness (C&F Guidelines) for the Retailer Reliability Obligation (RRO).

The purpose of the RRO is to support reliability in the National Electricity Market (NEM). The interim C&F Guidelines are one of 6 guidelines that set out the AER’s roles and responsibilities in relation to the RRO.

As part of the RRO, liable entities (entities subject to the RRO) are required to enter into sufficient qualifying contracts to meet their share of the Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO’s) one-in-two year peak demand forecast during a forecast reliability gap period. Liable entities are required to report on their Net Contract Position (NCP) to the AER.

The interim C&F Guidelines set out the AER's approach to:

  • information requirements for liable entities
  • qualifying contracts
  • contract firmness methodology
  • the treatment of non-standard qualifying contracts
  • the NCP reporting process, and
  • the reporting requirements for AEMO (including compliance trading intervals and compliance reports).

The focus of this consultation was to update the interim C&F Guidelines to address the Retailer reliability obligation exemption for scheduled bi-directional units rule. The consultation process had the following stages:

We note that the report template from the 9 June 2023 update to the interim C&F Guidelines was not updated as part of this consultation.

In 2026, the AER will conduct a broader review of the interim C&F Guidelines. We expect that the interim Reliability Instrument Guidelines and interim Market Liquidity Obligation Guidelines will also be updated together with the interim C&F Guidelines.

The AER welcomes any views on the interim C&F Guidelines ahead of the planned review in 2026. Please submit any views to RROataer [dot] gov [dot] au (RRO[at]aer[dot]gov[dot]au).  Any issues raised will be considered in the 2026 review.