The AER has today released a decision to grant SA Power Networks (SAPN) an interim ring-fencing waiver from clause 4.2 of the Ring-fencing Guideline (Electricity distribution).
The interim waiver will allow SAPN to continue to conduct its Market Active Solar (MAS) trial from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026, after the current ring-fencing waiver (granted in April 2024) expires on 31 December 2025.
View the Notice of Decision document here.
More information about the waiver application and decision process can be found here.
Under the MAS trial, SAPN receives a retailer communication signal, blends it with its own flexible export limit signal and publishes the blended signal to a customer’s inverter, which helps to manage wholesale market negative price events.
The services that SAPN performs as part of the MAS trial are currently considered contestable in nature under the ring-fencing framework and therefore require a waiver. The scope of the interim waiver is limited to 100 existing Engie MAS trial customers and is granted with waiver conditions that provides transparency on total costs incurred by SAPN, data on registered customers, flexible export capacity allocations and customer consent arrangements.
The MAS trial aims to test an approach to facilitate delivery of increased value from renewable energy while benefiting customers from improved utilisation of network assets. The interim waiver supports this objective by allowing SAPN to continue to trial providing contestable services that could provide economic benefits to consumers, letting retailers work in conjunction with networks to gather evidence and learnings that inform the long-term purpose of the trial.