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:
- a consultation on the proposed draft of the interim C&F Guidelines, which commenced on 10 June 2025 and closed on 8 July 2025.
- a stakeholder forum on 17 June 2025.
- a final decision, which was published on 20 August 2025.
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.
When we commenced this review, we committed to conducting a broader review of the interim C&F Guidelines, interim Market Liquidity Obligation Guidelines and interim Reliability Instrument Guidelines in 2026.
Following this review, we have made the decision not to update these guidelines while proposed reforms are being considered. We refer to the relevant communications notice for further information.