The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has today published its final decision to amend the interim Contracts and Firmness Guidelines for the Retailer Reliability Obligation to reflect a recent rule change to the National Electricity Rules (NER).
The interim Contracts and Firmness Guidelines are one of 6 guidance documents that set out how the AER exercises its functions under the RRO.
When the Retailer Reliability Obligation is triggered, retailers (and any large customers who opt-in) are required to hold sufficient electricity contracts to meet their share of demand. The interim Contracts and Firmness Guidelines set out how to report on these contracts to the AER.
On 14 November 2024, the AEMC made the Retailer reliability obligation exemption for scheduled bi-directional units rule (RRO exemption for BDUs rule change). The purpose of this rule change was to exempt scheduled bi-directional units (including grid scale batteries and pumped hydro energy storage) from being liable under the RRO.
The focus of this consultation was to update the interim Contracts and Firmness Guidelines to address this rule change, provide guidance on matters of liability and minor administrative changes.
This update follows the draft decision released on 10 June 2025 for consultation. The explanatory statement outlines how we took the stakeholder submission into consideration.
In 2026, the AER will conduct a broader review of the interim Contracts and Firmness Guidelines. Under this review, we will consider the Integrating price-responsive resources into the NEM Rule 2024 No. 24 rule change alongside a broader range of matters. The interim Reliability Instrument Guidelines and interim Market Liquidity Obligation Guidelines will also be updated alongside the interim Contracts and Firmness Guidelines, with the aim to finalise all 3 guidelines in 2026.
The AER welcomes any views on the interim Contracts and Firmness Guidelines ahead of the planned review in 2026. Please submit any views to RRO
aer [dot] gov [dot] au (RRO[at]aer[dot]gov[dot]au). Any issues raised will be addressed in the 2026 review.